...How did you know there was a bid for 5M at 30, am I missing something here? ...
Think about the way the specialist opens a stock. Before the open, there are a bunch of buys and a bunch of sells that have accumulated overnight. Imagine what the specialist sees when he comes in the morning the day after BMY's announcement. He has _MILLIONS_ of shares to sell (everyone is screaming get me out!) and perhaps a few hundred thousand buys. Well, in the absence of a buyer at a particular price, he tries to see if he can entice more buyers to come in at a lower price. Remember, if there is no one on the other side of a huge imbalance, they either halt the stock, or the specialist has to take the other side of the trade, or both. So, he keeps lowering the price, calling around to find out where there is buying interest. At some point, either he has enough buy orders to meet the crazed selling supply, or he must be on the other side of some of those sell orders himself. So, if his neck is going to be on the line for 2M shares, where do you think he is going to open the stock? You got it! Some price such that if the stock turns on him, he knows there is buying interest below. (reverse what I am saying in the case of a buy imbalance.)
Another possibility, depending on when prae bought it, is that he was simply watching the tape and saw a huge amount of stock going off at, say 30, and the _BID_STAYED_THERE_, ergo, someone (read, a FUND with lots of money) is gulping down this stock - it will take anything you want to give it at these levels. (BTW - it's funny to see what happens when daytraders notice something as obvious as this - it becomes mayhem to try to get in front of each other - that is why prae used market orders.)
These are the catastrophes that traders look for. It takes experience, cojones the size of water melons (to trade that much size,) and a good bottle of rum (hey, they don't all go your way) - But rest assured, if the specialist opened the stock at 29.90 or whatever it was, and he didn't even need to delay the open too much (notice that the stock opened at about 9:40, EST) your money is in good hands.
nice trade prae -
nitro