Let us know when you figure that out. Maybe we can be better traders once we understand that. Best wishes.
What is fascinating to me was the tape action when there was a specialist. He would show size at "figure" like 89.97 x 90 50 x 999 and all the bids back off after the 1st "show"and after trading some at 90.. then lots of churning below, then the big prints come in at 90 and bids are not backing up anymore... the wall of supply gets absorbed .. 1 hour later up $1
That post made no sense to me at all. Why would anyone bother to do a block trade on exchange instead of bilateral? On a futures exchange this makes sense and happens all the time, usually after-hours, in order to use the MTM or margining system to reduce counter-party risk on an ongoing trade. On a stock trade it makes no sense. In the Icahn example, I would have: 1) thought Ackman would have made the call since he was in the hot seat with redemption notices; and 2) the volume involved would have been so massive, that it would have made the volume data useless as a result. This was an interesting thread otherwise.