Quote from bkveen3:
Is this seriously your explanation for why they trade so much better than everyone else? You are seriously an idiot.
lol
Its easy
Give one trader 1 billion trading capital
Trade a stock like AMD (which i used to trade on a daily basis)
He decides, lets make AMD move up 20 cents... So he eats up crazy crazy amount of shares, forming a short squeeze. Then as more people cover/chase AMD, he sells into them. Then it reaches a tipping point and he punches 5-10 prices levels sell/short, making the stock spiral downwards... catches it again with massive bid up... repeat
This is what they do on a daily basis... And theres absolutely nothing you can do about it with your tiny capital. With a billion in capital behind him, he can move the stock whichever way he chooses. Just pray your on the right side as he is.
GS and some other firms are the biggest fish in the ocean..
I used to trade a ETF called EWJ which tracks the japanese markets during US market hours. Theres a lot of automated trading that goes on with this ETF, but also there is a lot of "Spoofers" (Probably rich Japanese traders) That would create a ridiculous bid/ask amount on one side for a few seconds. - Say theres 10k share on bid, he will "spoof" using 500k shares so that the computers get scared and pull all their bids/offers. Thus he has a big influence in the direction of the stock.
But once... I saw this guy Spoof for about 200-250mil worth in shares, he did it 1-2 times previously in the day and this time, as soon as he spoofed, someone with a ridiculous amount of capital, punched all of his shares....the spoofer was short and forced to cover causing the stock to Rip..... and I bet the guy who punched the spoofer sold it back to him.
Goes to show theres always bigger fish in the ocean, but for GS, they are the biggest fish =]