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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Boplicity who wrote (84523)	12/10/1998 9:42:00 AM
From: Voltaire	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 176387

Greg, I agree with you about the board. This will be my last post on this subject. I only do this to assist those people on the board who are not blind followers and who truly have an open mind to all possibilities. Like the old saying " blind leading the blind and they both fell in the ditch". If the market is incapable of being manipulated by the Market Makers then please explain why a class action suit was brought by certain individuals who believed in these possibilities in 1994 and the Market Makers agreed to settle the case for $1 billion. People like Chuzz and Greg do a great disservice to this board and especially the investors who are on the board to increase their investments and increase their knowledge as well. Blind acceptance is mans own worst enemy, it as destroyed more of himself than any other phenomena, as witnessed by the inquisition, the crusades and the holocaust. All of the aforementioned historical events were based on dogma and blind belief and essentially said " let us invoke the sword of our leader and go out and slay our neighbor". I will try one last time to enlighten those who truly want to understand what goes on in the market place. First off, all Market makers are not created equal. There are probably no more than a dozen market-maker firms that can actually influence the market place. While many firms can be "The Ax" in a stock from time to time very few have significant influence on a daily basis. The stocks that are better suited for manipulation are the better capitalized, actively traded, higher priced Nasdaq stocks such as Dell, Intel, Cisco and Intel etc. The real Market Makers usually trade all these stocks and seem to have orders in hand or an inclination to heavily position these shares at all times. The Market Makers that seem to be the biggest factors are usually the firms with the largest institutional clientele. Firms like Goldman Sachs, Solomon, Lehman, Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch handle a great deal of the large institutional order flow and are more likely to be REAL in a stock. Being real is a way of describing the probability that they will usually stay at a quoted price and trade rather than withdraw from a quoted market. These dealers many times have large orders in the stocks they trade, which make their markets REAL, or they at times will commit a deal of FIRM capital to a position when trading a stock. In contrast, most market-making firms very rarely desire to hold positions or commit firm capital and only look to get a piece of the action on the orders they can work against ( known as getting between the orders). These firms get their orders in exchange for payment for order flow or soft dollar arrangements to institutional and retail firms and then flip their shares for small fractional profits. firms such as Mayer & Schweitzer, Herzog, troster, and NITE are well known trading houses that usually trade size only when they have an order in hand. They seldom commit capital to position trading and are usually not real factors in pricing ( without order in hand). They trade simply for the spread. Cetain market makers, though few in number, are the movers and shakers in the Nasdaq market. Finding the AX in a stock is the key to identifying a dramatic maneuver by a market maker. With todays enhanced transparency and the proliferations of ECNs,( electronic communications network ) market makers, including the Ax are very capable of disguising their orders. For example, the Ax in a stock may very well show itself to be offering shares at the inside offer when in fact it is bidding for shares through another market maker (stooge) or anonymously utilizing the services of one of several ECNs. If one observes a stock for a period of time or reviews the company's filings on the SEC EDGAR database the identity of the Ax will become obvious. Initially the Ax may be identified by observing who very often stops price momentum in a stock. Stopping Momentum in a stock means remaining at the offered price when the stock is moving p and conversely staying on the bid when the stock price appears to be dropping rapidly. in general as I have stated before it should be noted that an Ax may become irrelevant at times when the stock's momentum and volume are high because no single market maker is bigger than the market. Once the Ax has been identified, you may use this knowledge as one of the factors in making a trading decision. I will not comment or debate the above. I choose not to argue. Form the porch Voltaire