Decision Diagnostics Corp (DECN)

[Johnny_C]

Painting the tape...both definitions and meaning are somewhat correct. It was spawned from the old days when market makers would try to lift the inventory value to avoid haircuts, but shorts sellers also try to get down tick prints at the end of the day in low volume. This was not exclusive to otc or naddaq.

I think the context he term was originally used is also correct as MM's are capable of walking a stock down on low price prints or conversely upticking it at or near the close. For the most part it is irrelevant to investors in these type stocks if investors are not short sighted and are hoping for impactful future event. One reason I don't think market makers are substantially shortDECN is because they are all aware of the lawsuit. Even if it is a long shot it is not worth taking a big risk. Keep in mind market makers can constantly sell the public shares even if they are short. If they start selling a stock shortat 1.00 they can keep selling it as it upticks and average up. Eventually the stock generally backfills and mm does ok. This is not like shorting as a personal investor, this is a normal business function of their job. That is sometimes the reason for oddball end of the day prints that make the stock lower or higher