Kevin, Let me learn you why I was right, along with the reporters of Dow Jones News Services (appearing in The Wall Street Journal "Abreast of the market" section June 13th, 1996).
To have been a regular reader & subscriber of The Wall Street Journal for years, I know the answer... I was puzzled to see almost every trading day that prices & volumes reported in their stock tables were almost always different from the daily statistics column (In our case just have a look to the 9 most active issues on the NYSE...), and quotation inside articles.
I came to the only obvious conclusion that the stock tables DO NOT reflect all the trades on a given stock... This is easily confirmed by the total volume numbers : In our case for Philip Morris (MO) on June 12th, 1996
The stock list (4:00 pm EST) for MO gives these numbers :
MO volume 3,440,400 shares High 104 3/8 Low 103 Last 103 7/8
However, the most active NYSE stocks section give :
MO volume 3,523,900 shares Close $104 1/8 +1 1/2
As earlier said the stock list DO NOT give information on the last trades of the day, often reported in the minutes after 4:00 pm EST. So their claim is correct it's the price & volume as reflected at 4:00 pm EST, However it is NOT the 'real' closing values. For MO on that day the last 83,500 exchanges shares are missing from the Table List, while they are duly reported on the daily statistics and by the Wall Street Journal reporters.
More over, I am a subscriber to the real time quote service Interserve (just as Michael), and I did see every day, late trade affecting most of the time the total volume tally but sometimes closing prices as well, in the minutes after 4:00 pm EST... Just ask Michael for a confirmation.
That's why I am so confident of beeing right in this all issue. Any media reporting 4:00 pm numbers DO NOT report the true situation at the close, and usually it is advertised as beeing so (in The Wall Street Journal at least, I don't know where your data come from...). I agree it's a pitty to see those unfinished numbers in the WSJ tables...
However, before labelling any Wall Street Journal staff reporter of a liar... I would surely double check the information before... In my own life I've NEVER found any errors in their papers. I would say that Dow Jones is not known to hire idiots ? (to me and people I know).
So I wish you good luck if you intend to prove them wrong one time...
Pascal |
