DeeMan, always like your posts. I just want to add a little more from my experience.
Say stock going down for a while (From hours to couple of days), all of sudden, you see a block (100,000 shares or so depend on the volume of the stock) printed half point below the mkt, at this point, I am almost sure the specialist bought it (picture this, some institutional/hedge fund wanted to dump them, they called the floor and specialist looked at the book, not much selling left, so he would say: I can do it but with .5pt below the market)... what is his next move? sell those 100k at higher price! and here is getting interesting, he would put a mid size sell on the offer to test if there is any sellers left, if not, he's next step would be up the bid with mid-size (500+), wait for a while, then he'd show a bid with size (1-2k) and lift the offer make the stock looks strong, at this point, all the shorters see this and some quick hand will cover their short, stock start to moving up, and specialist would put up a bid with size (50k or more) to do what I call a "final push up" while at the mean time, he is at the offer to dump those 100k shares he bought .5pt below mkt to make a nice profit,(you will see trades go off from the offer). I will buy with him right after he bought the block and start to count the print for how many he sold (roughly like 1k, 2.5k...) once I see he is done with (or close at) selling those 100k, I will dump mine with a nice gain... so the key here is to look at the chart (I use 1-min candle, be it V or U bottom) and the tape (L2 on NYS) and the prints to decide the entry and the exit, it hard work and it takes time to get your tape reading/execution in line.
btw, me and preatorian2 have been trading in ET room (http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/elitetradinginaction) for the last 6 month, I mainly trade the gaps on Naz in the open, and he's doing gnp, so stop by when you have time. we may pick up some plays from you.
Good Luck
Say stock going down for a while (From hours to couple of days), all of sudden, you see a block (100,000 shares or so depend on the volume of the stock) printed half point below the mkt, at this point, I am almost sure the specialist bought it (picture this, some institutional/hedge fund wanted to dump them, they called the floor and specialist looked at the book, not much selling left, so he would say: I can do it but with .5pt below the market)... what is his next move? sell those 100k at higher price! and here is getting interesting, he would put a mid size sell on the offer to test if there is any sellers left, if not, he's next step would be up the bid with mid-size (500+), wait for a while, then he'd show a bid with size (1-2k) and lift the offer make the stock looks strong, at this point, all the shorters see this and some quick hand will cover their short, stock start to moving up, and specialist would put up a bid with size (50k or more) to do what I call a "final push up" while at the mean time, he is at the offer to dump those 100k shares he bought .5pt below mkt to make a nice profit,(you will see trades go off from the offer). I will buy with him right after he bought the block and start to count the print for how many he sold (roughly like 1k, 2.5k...) once I see he is done with (or close at) selling those 100k, I will dump mine with a nice gain... so the key here is to look at the chart (I use 1-min candle, be it V or U bottom) and the tape (L2 on NYS) and the prints to decide the entry and the exit, it hard work and it takes time to get your tape reading/execution in line.
btw, me and preatorian2 have been trading in ET room (http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/elitetradinginaction) for the last 6 month, I mainly trade the gaps on Naz in the open, and he's doing gnp, so stop by when you have time. we may pick up some plays from you.
Good Luck
