Front Loading comes in a few flavors. Most of it depends as stated before on HOW in real-time... Both L2 & Time_Sales are acting/reacting to each other during what I've dubbed an MM_Shuffle.
Both Kimzerfantastic & Pennyonfire post when a stock is down say 75% to 90%. These are not 100% accurate in stating a loading is taking place, but a good indicators to keep in mind.
First thing I would do is log those symbols, then check to see what's happened since. Remember too that most really big movers don't happen right off.
So we've covered two things: L2 & TS Down considerably
Something else that is a trade mark sign: Dormant or semi-dormant when you look back historically. Lets take this one: #571 BWBA .004 260kvs1k_VOL 10dayavg -73%, kimzerfantastik 11/22/12 12:24:43 AM posted on 10Day Alerts board.
If you scan back 100 days which is very important, two days come up which are extreme 10day avg. volume alerts:
11/21/12 260k vs 1k_vol10dayavg extreme 10day
12/17/12 245k vs 4k_vol10dayavg extreme 10day
Also look at the OPEN on 11/21, .009 whereas down volume was only 55k but close down 73%
If you would have spotted this in real time L2 is extremely active on the BID side where as the ASK side seldom changes. It's a shifting/shuffling during this process. And it's obvious too this symbols has been very dormant for quite sometime.
and if you check the years chart which I can only pull on on my trading software no changes at all, just a straight line of no activity in the PPS/Volume.
* So your looking one day: * You spot a new symbol to you * You use the L2, it's acting odd, bid dropping while ASK doesn't follow and other oddities to you * You then tie in Time_Sales * It's showing down ticks, then maybe an uptick which looks strange * L2 MM's are shuffling back and forth in an odd manner
Everyone will have their own way of viewing each event, but those are the basic's.
But make no mistake about it, the majority of times when this happens it is front-loading even though it may not move for several days or even months. Things may change on the other end and it may not move at all. But it's a signature move the day of and should be noted/logged/watched.
Also, Market Makers seldom if ever just throw shares out there on dormant stocks, not like what you see above. Yes they desire to get noticed when they are not busy and tape a stock a few times.
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