Pyramid fading is when a stock is really tanking fast, so say it's down 5 pts already and it's bid at 45. You buy 500 at 45, 800 at 44.6, 1200 at 44.2, 1500 at 43.7, something like that, so say you accumulate 5k shares, your cost basis it 42.5 Then if it bounces 3/4, you are profitable (net) on your position, even though if you sell at 43.25, your first buy is 1.75 underwater. This is a trading strategy that you can use if you have a lot of capital. As for specialists, It is my hunch, that a lot of them are poor traders, but have always just been successful pyramiding. An example is dis. He just lets is sit there, and he scalps nickles, but as it moves further up, you'll notice that the offer gets bigger and more active, so he's shorting, in a pyramid fasion. Instead of every .4 like in the above example, he's pyramiding every cent or 2 up. Then once the buyer leaves for a minute, he'll smack the stock down really fast, and take a half point profit on his half million shares short. IF the buyer comes back, he'll let it go back up again and short to him. Otherwise, he'll knock it lower, and start pyramiding to the downside getting long in anticipation of the buyer comming back. It's very rare that the stock moves more than 2 points in one direction during a week long period. Just a small consolidation as he buys a half million, moves it 3/4 and sells that half mil, over and over again every day or 2.
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trading nyse
- Thread starter limbo
- Start date
Add rky to this list. Dustin will vouch for me on this. I've had trouble with this guy before, but today was out of hand. I'd file a complaint, but I don't know how. He wasn't honoring any of his quotes at all. AT one time, he was bid 1k shares each way .1 X .45, and trades were going off everywhere between .6 and .55. He never adjusted his quotes during that time period. He might as well have just been quoting 1 by a milliion honestly. He was also holding tons of orders (many for 5 minutes +). I understand that he had an abnormally buisy day, but he has a duty to create a fair market. If mr. rky specialist reads this, please respond. Im not even upset that you took 3k from me today. Im just upset that you created an untradable, and unfair market.
Is the specialist on a given stock the same from day to day? (generally, of course) In other words, is the specialist for DIS going to be the specialist tomorrow, more than likely? I saw an interview with a specialist on CNBC, and she said she was the specialist for MO that day. I got the impression from that that she wasn't always the specialist, and that it could change from day to day.
"It is my hunch, that a lot of them are poor traders, but have always just been successful pyramiding. An example is dis. He just lets is sit there, and he scalps nickles"
While at ETG we had an ex-specialist(*retired* his firms went under in 1987). "Jerry" was his name.
He could not make money trading at ETG if his life dependent on it. Great guy very nice and friendly. Just to show you the value of the "book" to see when trade listed, I doubt that they will ever give the book to the public because they would give out too much and leave themselves "naked" hell thy go out of business at times anyway.
Any major down swings and Speer Leeds buys out a few defunkt specialist firms who just ran out of capital.
While at ETG we had an ex-specialist(*retired* his firms went under in 1987). "Jerry" was his name.
He could not make money trading at ETG if his life dependent on it. Great guy very nice and friendly. Just to show you the value of the "book" to see when trade listed, I doubt that they will ever give the book to the public because they would give out too much and leave themselves "naked" hell thy go out of business at times anyway.
Any major down swings and Speer Leeds buys out a few defunkt specialist firms who just ran out of capital.
I think it's the same specialist all the time. This notebook i've been keeping has all the info, and a lot of it is over a year old, but the same specialists still have the same quirks. On days like july 4th, or new years day, most of the real specialists are in burmuda, so they have interns take over, and all stocks are different. If you are really familiar with a stock, you can tell in 15 minutes if it's the same guy, or if he's on break. A lot of times, at lunch you can beat up on the specialist just because he's out at lunch, and his clerk is trading it. And I really am surprised how bad of traders most specialists are. But they always seem to bank just because they have their book, and they can scalp nickles to infinity because of order flow their way. They will always loose to us, just b/c they can't see which direction the next point will be for their lives.
can you tell me which post?
your post #244 relating to the following:
"....I can basically group any specialist into about a half dozen categories or action types by just watching 5 mins of him, and looking back over the action from the last 2 days (the main ones are; stop blowers, whole and half blowers (i try and avoid trading the first 2), faders, gunners, gap and runners/ faders, futures traders, order flowers, sector followers (these are my faves to trade cause they lag the futs and the other stocks in their sector by 3-20 mins)."
What do you mean when you say "futures traders" and "they lag the futs"? Also, can you direct me to a resource(s) that explains these specialist behaviors and how to play them? Thanks in advance.
Regards
"....I can basically group any specialist into about a half dozen categories or action types by just watching 5 mins of him, and looking back over the action from the last 2 days (the main ones are; stop blowers, whole and half blowers (i try and avoid trading the first 2), faders, gunners, gap and runners/ faders, futures traders, order flowers, sector followers (these are my faves to trade cause they lag the futs and the other stocks in their sector by 3-20 mins)."
What do you mean when you say "futures traders" and "they lag the futs"? Also, can you direct me to a resource(s) that explains these specialist behaviors and how to play them? Thanks in advance.
Regards
I don't really know of any resource, but you just have to watch them. As for the futures traders, they are usually the largest stocks around. Watch emc specifically. He's always the last large cap stock to open each day, and he takes the other end of the move right before the futs top/bottom out. So say the futs have ran, he'll open it at the high of that 30 minute bar, whenever that is. And he'll be shorting all the way, but opening it really high. Then let it drop, and he covers at the bottom. But he'll move emc tick for tick with the futs intraday. (I stopped playing the opening futs thing a few months ago when emc went under 50 a share, and it seems that maybe that pattern has changed, but it used to be good for a half on 1k shares every time). As for stox that lag, I really don't want to post my list b/c I like to beat up on those specialists, and i don't want an army of traders trying it cause they'd wise up. But there are a number that lag any large move, but are still large cap stox. So you can take 4k at market, and immediately put them out .15 c higher on island. I vary the sizes on the island as opposed to my market order, so he doesn't wise up. But you can beat up on the guy for about an hour or 2 before he stops giving you the great fills. When that happens a half dozen trades later, I just move onto the next. I only usually do this when I'm bored, and nothing else is happening, cause it takes precision, and there are usually better opportunities elsewhere.