did you know stock manipulation is legal ?

Someone explain this to me.

This stock CNFR has absolutely no volume, and then today (4) Form-4's come out with insiders buying a total of about 1.75M shares for $2 on 8/10.

The news hits pre-market and the stock goes up (at one point almost 50%), and closed up 41%

Here's the SEC links:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1502292/000090572922000177/xslF345X03/ownership.xml
http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220812/AHZ2W22C3Z22QJFL229U2ZZ2V3PAL22SZ242/
http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220812/A8Z8W22C3Z22MJFL229C2ZZ2GVT4Z22SZ242/
http://archive.fast-edgar.com/20220812/A7ZSG22C3Z22GJFL229K2ZZ2GQFOZ22SZ242/

As you can see (Block #2), the transaction date was 8/10

8/10's TOTAL reported volume was 121 shares. 8/11 was 6000.

And before anyone says "maybe they just didn't hit the tape until today"... no. Aside from the fact this news came out pre-market and the Form 4 specifically says 8/10 (ignore that "Date of earliest transaction" in block 3 up top, that's for multiple trades) ---- I went through todays T&S and there was probably a grand total of 13K shares that actually traded at $2 on the entire tape.

Now I'm alleging any wrongdoing here... but for lack of some kind of explanation.... this sure looks like these guys filed Form 4's and watched their stock pop 41%.

What am I missing?
 
We actually don't know what the trade volume was that day. You are only looking at volume from the exchanges and if you are looking at it on your broker's desktop software or website then many trade conditions will be filtered out. It's actually quite complicated. If you subscribe to market data from the exchanges you quickly get an appreciation for all the things your broker does to simplify and show you what you are most interested in.

Considering the size of their purchases and the low daily volume of this stock it seems reasonable they purchased it through a private transaction done off of an exchange.
 
FreeGoldRush said:
We actually don't know what the trade volume was that day. You are only looking at volume from the exchanges and if you are looking at it on your broker's desktop software or website then many trade conditions will be filtered out. It's actually quite complicated. If you subscribe to market data from the exchanges you quickly get an appreciation for all the things your broker does to simplify and show you what you are most interested in.

Considering the size of their purchases and the low daily volume of this stock it seems reasonable they purchased it through a private transaction done off of an exchange.
More...
Yeah that's what I thought, it was done via a dark-pool trade. But I DIDN'T however know there was a two week delay in seeing the print. I thought all trades were supposed to hit the tape w/i 24 hrs. Apparently not.

"FINRA hopes that providing a clear view of the level of activity handled by these ATSs or 'dark pools' will increase market transparency and thereby enhance investor confidence. FINRA's commitment to transparency is bringing light to what was previously a dark area of the equity markets. Making this information available to both the investing public and market participants provides an unprecedented view into the activity of these highly significant trading venues," said Steven Joachim, FINRA Executive Vice President, Transparency Services.

Each ATS is required to report to FINRA its weekly aggregate volume information on a security-by-security basis. FINRA will publish the information regarding Tier 1 NMS stocks (i.e., stocks in the S&P 500 Index, the Russell 1000 Index and certain ETPs) on a two-week delayed basis. Information on all other NMS stocks and OTC equity securities subject to FINRA trade reporting requirements will be released two weeks following the publication of information for the Tier 1 NMS stocks.

>>>>>According to the CFA Institute, dark pools are continuing to rise in popularity with an estimated 40% of all stock trades being executed in dark pools in 2017 compared to an estimated 16% in 2010.


Thanks for that 2 week, rear view mirror, "transparency" FINRA.
You guys are really keeping up with the times. :thumbsup:
 
Last edited:
vanzandt said:
Yeah that's what I thought, it was done via a dark-pool trade. But I DIDN'T however know there was a two week delay in seeing the. I thought all trades were supposed to hit the tape w/i 24 hrs. Apparently not.

"FINRA hopes that providing a clear view of the level of activity handled by these ATSs or 'dark pools' will increase market transparency and thereby enhance investor confidence. FINRA's commitment to transparency is bringing light to what was previously a dark area of the equity markets. Making this information available to both the investing public and market participants provides an unprecedented view into the activity of these highly significant trading venues," said Steven Joachim, FINRA Executive Vice President, Transparency Services.

Each ATS is required to report to FINRA its weekly aggregate volume information on a security-by-security basis. FINRA will publish the information regarding Tier 1 NMS stocks (i.e., stocks in the S&P 500 Index, the Russell 1000 Index and certain ETPs) on a two-week delayed basis. Information on all other NMS stocks and OTC equity securities subject to FINRA trade reporting requirements will be released two weeks following the publication of information for the Tier 1 NMS stocks.

>>>>>According to the CFA Institute, dark pools are continuing to rise in popularity with an estimated 40% of all stock trades being executed in dark pools in 2017 compared to an estimated 16% in 2010.


Thanks for that 2 week, rear view mirror, "transparency" FINRA.
You guys are really keeping up with the times. :thumbsup:
More...


TWO WEEKS! Holy smokes! Talk about price NON-discovery! How is that efficient? My LORD. I just wanna' snuggle up in my futures blanket even further! Yikes!
 
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