Quote from Swan Noir:
In the day, when the specialist system was in full force, there was a book by Yale Hirsch ... Don't Sell Stocks on Monday:
(http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3771913-don-t-sell-stocks-on-monday
A friend of mine, who was in a position to know, maintained that specialists tried to move stocks to round numbers, 40, 41 etc., on Friday closes because in their experience if they marked them down an eight or a quarter (say 40.75) at the open on Monday they would get a disproportionate amount of small retail buying. They prefeered retail participation because they retail limit orders hang out there to be picked off and in general were easier to trade against. Stock tended to be "locked up" for long periods once small retail owned it. His contention was that specialist always prefeered to trade against a tighter "in play" float ... gave them more control.
Since he was in a position to know (he was with Spear Leads and Kellogg when they were the biggest specialist firm on the NYSE floor) I assume -- but do not know -- the information was accurate. I wonder if there are big players that feel the same way today? I wonder if a tighter float is as big an edge now as he believed it was then?
SN
Iâve never been able to correlate float to an edge â and that is not to say youâre friend is / was wrong â nor that an edge doesn't exist - and I simply too stupid to figure it out
What I do know is â every one cannot buy â nor can every one sell â for if they do â the mkt soon ceases to exist
To make money â price must move â either by nature â or design
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I know the above doesn't help answer what youâre searching for⦠So hereâs the best I have to hopefully help
Expect nothing, always trade what you see
Knowing big money at times buysâ¦, sellsâ¦, and must move price around to make money (not talking about the institutions, rather the big hedgies and alike)
At times all of them are on the same page⦠other times none of them are on the same page⦠and still other times none of them are present
MM sometimes trade.., but mostly are concerned with keeping their risk delta neutral (easier to do when the above participants are absent â or at the open)
Big money day traders - identify the likely intra-day direction... then magnify it in the AM... reevaluate mid day to determine if they let it ride..., take profit..., reverse their position... get flat in the PM (before the close)
wash... rinse... repeat (assuming no SHTF to the system - then its a balls out scramble for all)
RN