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Strategies & Market Trends : Waiting for the big Kahuna -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: blitzfund who wrote (80040)	4/20/2008 6:03:04 AM
From: saveslivesbyday	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 94695

Blitz, Vi, others - question about this: Suspicious Gaps by Carl Swenlin April 18, 2008 On Wednesday and Friday of this week the market opened up with large gaps from the previous closing price, and I think this activity is suspicious, possibly contrived. It is, after all, options expiration week, and weird market action can be expected. This week it is likely that the big money wanted to stick it to the bears and put holders, as usual, and they did so quite skillfully. These large up gaps can be contrived by heavy buying of S&P futures just before the market opens. There is usually a bullish cover story available to use as justification for the initial buying spree. When the market opens, many bears are forced to cover in order to limit losses, so the price advance is supported by real buying. Next, the reluctant bulls are sucked into the move as they begin chasing the market. decisionpoint.com ----- So many fascinating ideas in just these 2 paragraphs, leading to so many questions: Who is buying the premarket S&P futures? What kind of volume is needed to move the futures price? Everyone can see the futures before market open, but where can one find the volume of pre-market futures trading? Is there a correlation between the volume and the opening index prices, or the direction of stocks that day? What causes the "disconnect" between futures prices and the market open some days - is this also a manipulation of sorts? Can't S&P futures buying or selling during the day also move markets strongly? (think PPT) Do the SPY and DIA ETF computer programs buy and sell stocks in sync with the futures, or vica versa?