hi. this is a rather newbie question but i never quite understood this 100%, but why do trades happen in the AH immediately after the close w/o news or catalyst... another words why does "someone(s)" wait until after the close to scoop or dump their shares? for example, GNBT today closed at 2.94 and yet, prints go off in the AH as if someone really wanted to buy or sell them... question - why wait until the market is not as liquid to buy or sell? i can understand if there was substantial stimulus, but someone could easily have gotten more shares at a better price in the regular session... are these just traders that are specialized in AH trading? or programs? someone that doesnt want to be printed in the regular session? thanks for the input....
I can think of a few reasons: 1. Want to be flat and forgot that you were in a position before the close. 2. There might be news that only a select few know at the time - a lot of news items happen right after the close (like upgrade/downgrades from select brokerage houses). 3. You can push afterhours prices around a lot easier than you can during the day. So if you want to manipulate the price to make it seem like there is buying pressure, maybe you can do it pretty easily in the aftermarket. And you are hoping that this translates into more buying the next morning on more volume (so you can liquidate at better prices). 4. You have a job and you can't trade til after the close.
thanks for the help, but most of the time it still doesnt seem to explain what goes in in the AH...... im not really referring to times when just a couple of trades happen and then activity dies down... for example, in GNBT today, it traded 3x average volume, and AH activity took place all the way up to 8:00pm ... gnbt traded on heavy volume today in the regular session but doesnt really explain why trades happened AH... it is up 2c in the AH... my guess right now is some kind of arbing happening... though i dont see anything that is highly correlated with it at them moment... ah well.