The Look of Manipulation

Posted on September 19th, 2008
Written by Richard
Posted in: N/A (old archives)

When I was first reading about stocks, trying to learn the game, they taught me how to spot manipulation and insider trading. They would show me something that looks like this pre-market picture:

Note the thousands of contracts sitting on the bid, since the market essentially ran out of sellers and the market went limit-up. hmm…. now look at the volume splitter on the pre-market chart:

The last bar shows a huge pre-market surge of buying. That is what we call “unusual pre-market activity” in the biz. It’s a sign that the market playing field isn’t very level at the moment.

I wonder who could be behind such unusual stuff, manipulating the way our markets work? Oh, it’s the freaking government. Damn. Now what?

Trader Mike said:

“When I said [short sellers] were sticking their faces into a buzz saw I had no idea the federal government would be the one holding the saw.”

Well put! This is ridiculous.

Everyone on earth is talking about the new rules, and I don’t care to add to the cacophany. I don’t really find it that interesting, except when it affects my own trading. So, I thought I’d show what I was looking at this morning… I have time to post, because I won’t be trading until I see how this initially shakes out. Be careful, out there.

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