I thought we use to have more depth in big stocks at each price point, not falling $5 or $20 on 10,000 or 50,000 share like Apple did right before the Open! Maybe I don't fully remember how there was nobody to buy your shares back when I was still a kid. The Market Makers who refused to pick up their phones causing stock prices to fall off a cliff. There's a story about a JP Morgan Analyst who bought his Mom and Sister enough cheap Puts that made his Mom and divorced Sister $12 million each. He quit the Trading and never returned, even after reading a story by him in 1997 he still refused to return to the Stock Market. Rumors were he made over $50 million, maybe more, he said "I knew this was not my line of work, this was the only time I could become this rich and I needed to take this money and run!" (Morgan Analyst who made a killing on Black Friday.)
You can read through any period of Wild Stock Markets only to read about people doing a shoddy job of making a market in their stock!
"At the same time, the staff found that so-called upstairs firms - the big investment banks and brokerage houses that usually help keep markets orderly by buying shares for their own account to accommodate institutional customers - did little to ease the selling pressure Oct. 19, when the Dow-Jones industrial average fell 508 points, or 22.6 percent. As a result, specialists were asked to purchase most of the shares offered for sale that day. Many were overwhelmed.
''Specialists were confronted with extraordinary imbalances that required unprecedented capital commitments, and the upstairs firms did not provide the anticipated liquidity,'' the S.E.C.'s staff wrote. It added that ''diminished upstairs firm participation'' was continuing, placing greater strains on the specialist system. More Volatile Since Collapse
In its report, the commission staff found that the stock market had become even more volatile and less liquid since the Oct. 19 collapse."
"http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/04/business/stock-specialists-viewed-as-
jittery.html
The NYSE Specialist were front-running the Whales as long as we can remember! HFTS are only doing what their Masters taught them!
A Likely Story
Specialists are a symptom of monopoly markets
"
People unfamiliar with the way the NYSE works will ask you how the specialist stays in business, and why. Even those who know nothing about stocks and bonds have heard the advice "Buy low and sell high," and they find it tough to believe that New York Stock Exchange specialists have made a good business out of doing the opposite.
But the seven specialist firms do make a good business somehow, and their managers have been so enamored of the business that they have bought out 43 other specialist firms in the past decade, paying richly for the last few seats in a game of musical chairs.
Now it's beginning to look as if they bought powerful monopoly positions in the buggy-whip business. Shares in two firms that specialize in being specialists were down by more than half last year.
It's not hard to guess how the specialists really make a living. College kids of our acquaintance find it obvious. Even the New York Stock Exchange's trading police have figured it out. Last year they announced disciplinary proceedings against five of the seven specialist firms for trading ahead of public orders. Simply put, they bought low or sold high while holding back a big order that assuredly would make the specialist trade profitable within a matter of seconds"
http://www.barrons.com/articles/SB107369262728222500?tesla=y
You can read through any period of Wild Stock Markets only to read about people doing a shoddy job of making a market in their stock!
"At the same time, the staff found that so-called upstairs firms - the big investment banks and brokerage houses that usually help keep markets orderly by buying shares for their own account to accommodate institutional customers - did little to ease the selling pressure Oct. 19, when the Dow-Jones industrial average fell 508 points, or 22.6 percent. As a result, specialists were asked to purchase most of the shares offered for sale that day. Many were overwhelmed.
''Specialists were confronted with extraordinary imbalances that required unprecedented capital commitments, and the upstairs firms did not provide the anticipated liquidity,'' the S.E.C.'s staff wrote. It added that ''diminished upstairs firm participation'' was continuing, placing greater strains on the specialist system. More Volatile Since Collapse
In its report, the commission staff found that the stock market had become even more volatile and less liquid since the Oct. 19 collapse."
"http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/04/business/stock-specialists-viewed-as-
jittery.html
The NYSE Specialist were front-running the Whales as long as we can remember! HFTS are only doing what their Masters taught them!
A Likely Story
Specialists are a symptom of monopoly markets
"
People unfamiliar with the way the NYSE works will ask you how the specialist stays in business, and why. Even those who know nothing about stocks and bonds have heard the advice "Buy low and sell high," and they find it tough to believe that New York Stock Exchange specialists have made a good business out of doing the opposite.
But the seven specialist firms do make a good business somehow, and their managers have been so enamored of the business that they have bought out 43 other specialist firms in the past decade, paying richly for the last few seats in a game of musical chairs.
Now it's beginning to look as if they bought powerful monopoly positions in the buggy-whip business. Shares in two firms that specialize in being specialists were down by more than half last year.
It's not hard to guess how the specialists really make a living. College kids of our acquaintance find it obvious. Even the New York Stock Exchange's trading police have figured it out. Last year they announced disciplinary proceedings against five of the seven specialist firms for trading ahead of public orders. Simply put, they bought low or sold high while holding back a big order that assuredly would make the specialist trade profitable within a matter of seconds"
http://www.barrons.com/articles/SB107369262728222500?tesla=y