Thats usually MMs doing that. BUT, Sometimes it is Traders doing it too & heres one reason why.
I know Traders (including myself) that have alot of Trades during the day, so anytime one of our trading platforms go down and we are unable to get any Trades to go through, we call up the broker of the platform that had problems (I have several accounts w/several brokers) so we call up and Bitch and get a bunch of free trades.
There have been times if you get the right person on the phone, and you Bitch loud enough, the guy will just give you 100-200 free trades just to shut you up.
Anyways, on stocks like OWCP that had a huge run, and then when many Traders would go long, I know Traders that will mess with the Impatient traders by Buying or Selling share amounts that are the same as the so-called MM Signals.
Some believe the MM signals are a myth, but many Traders believe its real.
Skeptics say "Well They Could Just Call Each other DUH Cell Phones!", But the Traders saying that don't realize that the things these signals mean (supposedly) are NOT Exactly LEGAL.
And if these people that work for the MMs that monitor and program systems called other people working for other MMs, during the Trading hours, and someone was listening or recording conversations and/or text messaging about manipulating stocks, like the meaning of these signals suggest.
These people would end up either losing their jobs, possibly getting indicted/arrested? Possibly getting barred from ever working in the markets ever again for SEC Violations? Who knows?
This is why I believe "SOME" of the signals are real.
I don't believe it goes on as much as some people think, b/c I know Traders that do it sometimes (when they get a ton of free trades) just to mess with Impatient Traders, and I must confess, I have done it before too (years ago) on a stock I was Long on and there was a bunch of impatient traders Bitchin every day.
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