as if the MMs didn't want it to close at .90 or above
I think Capt's stuff will give a clue. If MMs are trying to stifle a rally, the short sales ought to spike up, percentage wise. Depending on which exchange(s), it might not show until tomorrow. Of course, with the take down and rebound we saw today, and a couple other higher-volume minutes with "big" (relatively) price moves, shorts might come higher from those actions.
OTOH, note the nice improvement from 10:30 nasty b:s, the brief near-neutral at 14:45 and then the improvement again into the (adjusted by me) 16:00 close. They way I'm interpreting this is that the MMs ceased pecking the bid with conviction to move the price lower - either capitulation to the trend or they didn't really care (they had accomplished their goals earlier?) - and allowed the market to operate, more or less.
The thing to remember is that they make $ regardless of direction as long as their portfolio is not severely out of a "market neutral" position too far and there is some volume. I believe the exceptions occur when a "large important customer" says do X for me, because the MM want to keep their business and/or when the MMs portofolio is too far from market-neutral.
Regarding this latter situation, I also believe they will cause this when they see the opportunity to garner more profits and it looks "safe".
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