CAT traded near it's high of 73.31 into the close and went out around 73.23. I was going to enter an afterhours order to sell at 73.35 and I almost put the order in as 72.35 instead of 73.35. I looked at the indicated bid, and it was 72.30 so I had to go back to charts to make sure the big figure was indeed 73, not 72. I thought, "gee, that was a close one" and I was a bit annoyed that the indicated bid was 72 something. So I look at the matrix screen and I see it shows the last trade as 500 at 72.61 !! Did somebody just do exactly what I almost did? Did they put in what they thought was an above the market order one point too low? Pretty effed up.
Not sure with CAT, but it happens elsewhere every night. You will often see bids and offers that look to be a couple pennies away from the close, but in reality are more than a $1 away from the last print. I put in orders like this on a regular basis and usually get filled a couple times a month. I've also been on the wrong side of these trades more than once.
I fell for that trick a couple of years ago on IWM and that's 1 reason I no longer bother with after hours games. Got enough games during RTH and don't need any more BS.
I guess there were several trades with 72 handles... 72.31 . what a sucker play, as 73.31 was the day high.
If you're doing 100 shares who's going to give a crap? I think they only go after you if you're doing one of those pump and dump schemes.
Though the stated premise was to paint the tape to give the below market trades a legit appearance so as a juror, I might observe that the intent is clearly to manipulate. <shrug> Depends on how big a target is painted on your back ultimately.... Mike Milken's final charges were all relatively technical after all.