Ifinix Corporation (INIX)

[satelliteguy]

"It seems logical that if the seller enters first and somebody comes in to buy it, then it would be a "sell", and vice versa."
Nope, that's backwards. Here it is again.

Assume a hypothetical stock with a bid of .45 and an ask of .55.

Trader #1 wants to buy 5,000 shares at .50, and trader #2 wants to sell 5,000 that he already owns, also at .50.

Scenario #1: Trader #1 puts in his buy order first. Quote becomes bid .50, ask .55. Then, trader #2 puts in his sell order and is filled. IHub's buy-sell thingy calls that a "sell" because at the time the trade was made, .50 was the bid. After the trade, the quote goes back to .45 x .55.

Scenario #2: Trader #2 puts in his sell order first. Quote becomes bid .45, ask .50. Then, trader #1 puts in his buy order and is filled. IHub's buy-sell thingy calls that a "buy" because at the time the trade was made, .50 was the offer. After the trade, the quote goes back to .45 x .55.

Note that this hypothetical does not even bring up the complicating factor of late reporting of trades that causes the bid and offer to shift between the time the trade is made and when it prints on the tape.