Almost everyone seems fascinated with the actions of large players. It's kind of comforting to be on the sell side of a stock if you know Buffet is clearing out his inventory. But how useful is knowing the identity behind volume really? Is selling pressure different from selling pressure depending on the credit lines behind it? How many of You keep track of what others do and use it to make trading desicions on a regular basis? Just curious.
I was watching one stock today with daily average volume of 1-2M. It was trading smoothly on NYSE with $.02 spread . All of sudden a trade of $160K down $0.15 crossed the tape. Everyone was hit and panic by it and started to sell. I guess what happend later was that whoever took the $160K order got out up $0.1. Then the slide continued for further $0.1. And maybe will continue in the next week IMO. The buyer and seller of that $160K trade are both institutional manipulators.
Normally large block sales always cross the tape a few cents lower than the bid. Nothing unusual there.
===================================== Not likely Mr. Buffet will let us know in time to help;however 30 minutes of block trades or more help with the plan . Figure a block trade= about 10,ooo shares and more.
You may wish to check your facts. Ted Turner recently sold $20 million worth of AOL shares, and not 20 million shares. P.S. My source is Reuters, what is yours?