Hey B,
One of my favorite quotes (people think it's a movie quote but it predates film) is "the greatest trick the devil ever pulled, was convincing the world he did not exist".
It's apt here because the greatest trick Etrade, Scottrade, Schwab, Fidelity, TD or the vast others ever pulled was convincing retail based traders that their platforms give you the "same tools the pros use".
They get away with saying because like all marketing, it's not what you say, it's what you don't say.
You'll never see a TD commercial with that kindly old trustable tv personality telling you "TD AMERITRADE... We give you EVERY tool the pros use". You see the twist? They're making it sound as if you'll have the same tools as pros and even better they make you believe you'll have ALL the tools and they'll All be as good and as dynamic (from small boutique firms up to the largest trading houses implement new algorithms daily) as the pros...
When truth is, pros use a hammer... They give you a hammer... Pros use a screwdriver, they give you a screwdriver.... Viola! You now have "the same tools the pros use"...you just don't have all of them.
To bring this piece back into UBRG land in an effort to keep it up, UBRG is what is known as Thinly held, widely traded. Meaning it is thinly held by investors (I believe the MRQ reported between 59 and 74 investors of record) yet the shares trade hands today at a clip of 16 million and have traded as much as 180+ million (two years ago record volume) and that sure isn't being done by you, Wilma, Gold or others.
The retail rules do not apply to registered broker dealers who simply meet or exceed capital requirements. The whole $25k rule was put in place specifically to keep retail from beating pros....
UBRG manipulated? Oh, the level of manipulation I've seen is abhorrent. You've at least got your head in the game if you know it's existing...now all you have to do is figure what their plan is and trade with it.
So what is their plan? Same as usual... Dilute it... Bring it lower... Receive shares at a discount to the close and then sell those shares as earliest as possible to reap the margin between the discounted price and the sale price.
Pressure you... Until you sell... Thin the herd out and take your money... Why? Because in order for them to win... And every day of their life is spent figuring out how to win... In order for them to win... YOU must lose.
