Dan - You're obviously right about Gunn Allen's intent to buy today, but I must point out that there is no way to confirm from the time and sales how many of those prints at their bid represented shares sold to them. I am generally on the bid or offer for a couple of stocks on any given day, through my broker/MM, and small MMs like GNLN or my MM do not always "get the call" even when they are the best bid or ask. For example, I believe E-Trade is contractually obligated to send ALL of its trades to Hill, Thompson, and Charles Schwab used to (and I assume still does) send virtually all of its trades to Mayer & Schweitzer. Sometimes those large MMs then call my MM, often resulting in a double print at the same or a similar price, but often (especially for small pieces) they just do the trade in-house, taking the stock into inventory on a sell or shorting it to the buyer.
Most large brokerages have arrangements under which they route some or all of their orders to certain MMs, which then match the posted best bid or best offer. I've watched dozens of prints go by while my MM was alone as the best bid or offer, without any of those prints being trades involving my MM. Also, I haven't looked at today's log yet, but there are generally doubled or tripled prints in GUMM and other relatively thinly traded stocks, representing the same buy or sell order (or parts of the same order) moving from a customer's account, to a MM's "house" account, to the other MM's "house" account, to the other MM's customer's account, or any portion of this sequence. |
