SHORTING IS EXTREMELY RISKY IN THIS MARKET. YOU WILL INCUR HUGE LOSSES. This was a monster class buy program that hit Friday Feb 22, 2008, well timed, and well exceuted. About 20% of day's volume unleashed in last 1/2 hr. I mean it was a Tsunami that leveled all these shallow water fishes, pirhanas, crocodiles and shorts, that were swimming in it eating people's lives and limbs for 2 days of relentless selling. Whoever did it, I salute them. May you unleash this again, please....
Shorting is not any riskier than going long. Seeing how the long term trend is now down, I would argue that going long is slightly more dangerous. However, whatever perceived danger exists on either side of the market is far, far less dangerous than having a bias. Having a bias, in daytrading, will get you killed... but even having a bias is less risky than being a douchebag attention hungry masochist spamming ET.
I was short and closed my position Friday afternoon, prior to the massive upswing, because the downwards momentum was waining and there was bullish MACD divergence. OP, do you have a long position?, why the bias?
Sorry those were not Buy programs. That was a lot of short covering on the news of the Bond Insurers potential deal. A buy program would be related the to cash vs. futures spreads. Funny stuff these guys like day offer a lot of entertainment