David, RE: Does anyone know if those large size block trades are on the buy side or the sell side?
Yes.
Most likely, a large size block has a buyer and a seller, and either the block is directly crossed, or is bought by the market maker and immediately resold at a small markup.
For example, at 9:35, 200,000 shares crossed at 42 1/8, then 100,000 crossed at 42 1/8, then 100,000 more at 42 1/8. Most probably the first 200,000 share block was sold to two buyers of 100,000 shares each.
For the second scenario, at 10:16, 100,000 shares crossed at 41 15/16. A couple of minutes later, 100,000 shares crossed at 41 7/8. Most likely, the trader had both the buyer and seller lined up beforehand, and crossed the trade, getting a nice paycheck of 1/16 on each share, or $6,250. |
