Remove SPY, ETFC and LEHMQ (none of which trade on the NYSE) from the list and you get 606 million shares. How many shares have traded in total with one hour in? 1.491 billion. Forty percent of the volume is comprised of four used dogfood stocks, just as we've seen for the last couple of weeks - all people passing shares back and forth among each other, many of it being "computer HFT games." The other used dog-food stocks (LEHMQ and ETFC) are really no better; they just don't trade on the NYSE. Lehman is particularly ridiculous as that's a formally-bankrupt company! Fannie (FNM) and Freddie (FRE) are two of the most outrageous abuses I've seen in a long time, second only to AIG (AIG). All three of these should be delisted as their equity value is quite literally bupkis. This just goes to illustrate - the market is currently being levitated on literal trash. Again today we see the Casino trying to suck in people; I got emails from two more associates over the weekend telling me that their "advisors" are telling them "you have too much cash allocated; now is the time to buy." Now is the time to buy, after a 50% move?! Where the hell were these so-called "advisors" at SPX 666! Nobody - and I do mean nobody - is talking about what this sort of volume pattern means. Well, I will: this is the sort of pattern that precedes an all-on equity market collapse... http://seekingalpha.com/article/159200-is-a-crash-impending?source=article_sb_popular
Why is there a perception that it is better to sell a 50% up move than to buy? Surely such an easy indicator would have been picked up by the numerous technical analysis books if it works...
Though I expect a correction in this very strong bear market rally any time between now and next Spring, I haven't a clue when it will come and would not want to speculate. But as of yet there is no sign that the rally is over considering the S&P weekly chart. When we get that sign it will be time enough to put on more short positions. I wouldn't want to over react to low volume late August trading. Lets see what happens after Labor Day.
You can bump up your position size to 10,000 shares with those stocks and be a "player" instead of trading 100 share lots with higher-priced issues.
Look, I fully admit to not understanding a lot in the market, but can someone tell me why in the name of all that's Holy does Lehman still trade? And the moves up behind this stupidity?
1) There can be a delusional hope that somehow, someway, the company will come back. There may be some "value" in the company that accountants and lawyers are trying to extract for themselves. 2) It can be easy to scare "shorts" out of the stock who are waiting for the company to be completely delisted once and for all, waiting for the last few pennies to the downside.
1) No "crime" has been committed. 2) The SEC maybe waiting for instructions from GS, IBKR, Citadel, Getco, Suzie-Q et al before taking any legal action.
wow lehman still trades! did not know that. The people trading that might as well be trading the garbage that I took to the dump the other day. Shows people will trade anything.