If you take a look at Gails screen shot you will see that the market clearly opened at .04 - .10. That means any trades that were in pre-open are entitled to prints at market prices. I explained on Friday why OBA's trade went off at .04. Even if oba's order filled at .10 the seller's print would still have gone off at .04. He should be happy he got his print at .04. The fact that it printed at 09:30:21 is irrelevant as it is well within the reporting regs. The fact is that there are more orders and shares traded at the open than at any time during the day which is why you will see trades like this as it takes the computers time to process all the prints and pinkies are usually the lowest priority.
Why did the bids disappear pre-open? I didn't notice this. What I noticed was that when I signed on it was .04 to .12 and it didn't change much after that. Could MM's have moved up and then back down? They could have but I didn't see it. But I also wasn't watching it. It wouldn't be the first time that this happened in this or any stock. It happens all the time. MM's are not obligated to represent orders until the market is open. If it takes their system 2 seconds or 10 seconds to reflect the order that is within the regs as well. Just remember that this is a pinky and doesn't fall within the stricter guidelines that listed stocks do. If the MM's such as NITE and CSTI didn't go high bid as they usually do in the morning it is no big deal.
To think that one tick at .04 would create a panic sell-off when there were clearly many bids above that print by the time it printed is a bit paranoid. To think that there are chartists that would would jump on this under these circumstances doesn't hold water. As Gail said this is pinkyland.
Also in a situation like this, it would be a bullish indicator on a candlestick chart. It would show as a hammer which is a bullish reversal trend on candlesticks.
This stock has been trending down so there was no reason for the alleged shorts to try and play games. These so called games are played when a stock is moving up so the shorts try and reverse the trend whether it be for a minute or a day. But in a stock that is trending down and is for sale, that is no time to mess with the trend.
There are way too many conspiracy theories here. Bottom line is it didn't affect trading at all so why even discuss it. Who really cares about who is short or who is long or whatever. The stock will trade and it will go where the market deems it should go. I understand that many here have large positions but stocks are going to move up and down and if you can't deal with the volitility you shouldn't be playing the market. If news comes out that will move the stock then that is what will happen. If it doesn't come out soon then you all have a decision to make. Sell or hold. It is that simple.