It's funny to see how people interpret the market any way that makes them happy. In the mean time this is what was happening on the floor. "Today, a few broker-dealers for the first time in thousands of Dow points referred to a preopening 'bid-wanted situation,'" said Oberhaus. "Institutions were saying to them: 'Get me out at any cost.'"
Where was I talking about "bearish" and "bullish" ?? If volume is high, a lot of people are buying. Period. You can't F*ING SELL A STOCK unless someone buys it. High Volume means a lot of selling and a lot of buying. FOR EXAMPLE - The Stock Market could end the day exactly at the same level as the open and with record volume, and that would mean a lot of buying and a lot of selling. "Bullish" and "Bearish" were irrelevant to what I was talking about.
you guys are having a semantical wank iow, talking past each other. using different definitions of "buying and selling" every trade has a buyer and a seller. so, yes there is ALWAYS the exact same # of shares bought vs. sold (and futures contracts too i might note) commonly, people call it selling when sellers are hitting the bid and accepting lower and lower prices to sell into. as bids are hit and exhausted at a level (and/or lifted), sellers must accept lower and lower prices to get out. sellers are "in control" supply is exceeding demand at a given price, so the market moves until supply and demand are either in equilibrium or a reversal occurs, when demand exceeds supply. so, yes EVERY transaction involves two sides. in common parlance, it is called selling, when the sell side is more aggressive than the buy side. clearly, sellers were "in control" today.
No, that would mean there was equal demand on the buy and sell side. When the market drops on high volume it means there were significantly more people wanting to sell than wanting to buy. Edit: Every share of stock is not owned by a fund or private investor. Some shares are just sitting in the market makers inventory.
<i>"For the stock market to go down on good volume, someone must be buying"</i> False. Markets going down on huge volume means institutional players are rushing for the exits. When ER futures traded 500,000+ contracts and ES futures 3 million+ contracts, that was not buying pressure. Those were massive, insitutional sell programs dumping supply on hapless retail dipsters who think every blip is a bottom before new highs the next week. Did anyone watch the tape today? Price action spent 30min rising 10 ES points, only to be slammed down -12 points in ten minutes, repeatedly. Not just once, repeatedly. That is considered bullish? This after a no-volume ascent thru overnight gaps and air pockets for months now? The market had a heart attack this week. Sell volume = big money no longer interested in equity markets at recent levels.
Don't know who is buying.....maybe the PPT......but lots of folks at work are transferring 401k and mutual funds to stable money market fund. Seeing as most of them have already earned a 12% return YTD they are happy to sit the current uncertainty out than watch their 401ks drop thousands each day.
Agreed. Mostly because when a market goes down on "light" volume, it is an indication that the longs have not panicked out yet. A great example of this is seen during very strong Bear trends when there is day after day after day of selling, but on light volume. You don't get a bottom in the markets until you see HIGH volume, and the last of the Bulls throwing in the towel and capitulating.