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Strategies & Market Trends : MDA - Market Direction Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (17360)	6/15/1999 12:31:00 AM
From: Les H	Respond to of 99985

Painting the Tape TheStreet.com Cramer bellows on painting the tape By James J. Cramer 6/14/99 Can the tape be painted? Not in my stocks it can't. For years I have been railing about these bogus premarket quotes which show nonexistent activity in a stock in order to generate excitement. We know this stuff goes on. What makes it especially galling is when the cable news organizations pick it up and then go out with it. The Wall Street Journal took a look at this practice in a critical piece worth reading. But if you try generating excitement in my stocks, here is what happens: I go to my trader and say, "As much as I love National Gift Wrap and Box, I want that bid found and hit. I know that price is bogus, but you have to get it for me." Same with the quotes that I hear on CNBC. Large buyer of IBM overseas? Looking up two bucks and can't find a reason? I tell my trader, "Find me that buyer. I want to hit him -- right now." Anytime there are bids that are substantially above where a stock I own should really reside (based on no news), I ask my trader to annihilate the bid. If people are stupid enough to want to try to paint the tape, I can tell you I will tar and feather them with offers. That said, welcome back to the badlands. This paint-the-tape stuff is exactly what I am talking about that will occur regularly if the market extends hours without thought toward manipulation. Our regular day markets are free and fair. The markets before and after the regular hours are cesspools of corruption. They are cesspools because there are not enough people around trying to whack bogus bids or take low-ball offerings. If there were, fine, this stuff would not occur and the manipulators would lose too much money. If you want to see more painting the tape, vote for around-the-clock trading. If you want full and fair markets, keep the hours the way they are. Pretty clear choice in my book. moneycentral.msn.com