Rob,Chuck,Dennis,Brad, et. al.
Specialists have a license to steal, basically. But oftentimes they just become convenient whipping boys when we don't know what is really going on and can't find out. News announcements...Usually the company determines the time of the release. They don't want to get sued by those who just sold. They also frequently request that their stock be held pending announcements during the day. When a stock is held or is late opening more than 15 min, they cannot reopen trading for 30 min. This is supposed to give everyone a fair chance to decide if they want to buy or sell and at what price. During this halt, floor brokers are constantly talking to each other and the specialist, trying to find a level where all the orders are matched off. The specialist can only buy or sell if there are unmatched orders. They have to get special exchange permission to let the price move more than a preset amount. They do have a lot of lattitude to move prices on a daily basis though. If they're long and the stock is moving up and they don't have any public orders to sell, they can sell their own stock. Or if they think the stock is going higher, they can hold it. Just like you or me. But they have to sell some if no one else will. They can tell a buyer that they know someone else may be a seller and they're going to send for the broker to see if has anymore for sale, or he can just sell it himself. But if you or anyone else leaves an order with him, he has to sell your stock before he sells his.
Brad, good point about telling your broker not to lend your stock. You can do this if the shares are not held on margin, which allows the broker to hypothecate your shares without your permission. Short positions are generally considered bullish, as has been pointed out. The key factor is how many days of normal volume would be required to cover. If it's many days or weeks, someone is very convinced that the company has bad news coming. Or it could be hedged against options. Long calls, short stock. Or short puts.Or short against the box.
I hope we do see some support below here pretty soon, but the market looks very bad for the techs right now. The buzz is all about making money in financial stlocks, S&L's, oils, drillers,retailers,restaurants. BORRRRRRing!!!! |
