Apple End of Day 800K Shares Dump

Right before US stock market was about to close on Jan 26, 2013, a huge block of Apple shares was dumped. We are not talking about 10K, 50K or even 100K block. We are talking about 800K shares of Apple got dumped at close.

So what happened?

Why the rest of the stock market keep going up while Apple got hammered yet never dropped much throughout the day?

I guess it is time to explain one important aspect of the stock market dynamics – institution unloading. I just posted a new article, The War Of The Bot, explaining this messed up situation.

Personally I have seen my share of nasty market making both on and off floor.

For example, a market making brokerage that handles a large sell order on a large cap from an institution demanding a price higher than previous day close by $0.50. Then you would see the issue magically pop $0.50 and likely more, inducing a short squeeze of sort and then the cross is done. For anyone looking at the incident that was the very reason why the institution chooses to use the brokerage firm to execute the order because they know the brokerage firm can make it happen. Yet, the market maker was just doing his job.

Manipulation?

I am not in a position to judge.

Not a fair game?

I just know that it happens everyday.

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