This "block" was actually the opening trade of the day, which consists of all of the buy and sell orders from the public at the open. It was not a single seller. The first trade of the day for EMC is always in volume of five or six figures. More interestingly, this is at least the third time this year alone that the specialist has used a "delayed" open due to a sharp market fall at the open to open EMC at an artificially low price (as evidenced by the extreme speed at which the price advanced after the open): Jan 7th-opened at 89; Jan 13th at 84 and today at 93.
The last two days have had interesting movement at the close. Yesterday, the specialist dropped his bid to 97.5, while holding the ask at 98.1875 at 3:56:16 pm. He then executed a total of 36,600 shares at 97.5 through 3:59:22 pm. At 3:59:39 pm, he dropped his bid again by a whole dollar to 96.5, while holding the ask at 98.1875. He then proceeded to execute 41,000 shares at 96.5 (presumably market on close orders). At 4:00:22 pm the new spread became 96.375 by 96.5625.
The specialist was able to move the price down by $1.5 is less than five minutes at the close, and by a full dollar on the final trade of the day.
Today was even more egregious (at least for those buying on the close). At 4:00:30 pm, the NYSE quote was still 97.75 by 97.9375. Then, seeing an excess of buy orders for the close, the specialist went to 97.75 by 100, less than a minute later, presumably to give himself tremendous leeway for the last trades. Sure enough, at 4:03:42, the final NYSE trade prints at 25,800 shares at 99, an increase of $1.125 from the prior trade.
I have even seen this action on a intraday (rather than just at the close) basis in which this specialist will move the quote to a full dollar spread, the price will move in the direction of the side of the spread that jumped. |
