There is mysterious goings on in the markets. I might email Camp and see what his opinion is. But with the computers doing most days 1/3 of the trading, and somedays up to 1/2 you can't rule out they are a good bit of what is being called PPT activity. If the computers do 1/2 the trading, they are just trading between themselves? Huh?? Hows that work? Where's the money in that? The computers though are trading more than just stocks. Futures, options, and who knows what else. They're looking for the small differences, the 'free" money, and trading one thing against another.
Found this on VanderMoolen's website - In Europe, Van der Moolen will benefit from the expected long-term growth potential of securities volumes, mainly driven by pension and corporate finance trends, and the opportunities to trade and arbitrage offered by the relative inefficiency of these markets.
And looking at their profile, they are one of the big players in the US, and also Europe. So people talk about the linkage between the US and Europe markets and you have a company whose specialists trade both. And they are trading them for their only profits.
I thought we might have sold off a little into the close today with the TICK hitting the LOD at 3:11, but it looked like MSFT, INTC, IBM, CSCO and GE to name a few were used to keep us green. Was that just the computers seeing "inefficiencies" or something or somebody else? Hard to say. Really nothing us little guys can do about it, other than take it into account in our trading.
Profile:
Transatlantic Liquidity Providers
Van der Moolen (Euronext: VDMN.AS, NYSE: VDM) is an international securities firm, acting as one of the largest specialist firms on the NYSE and trading actively on the leading equity, bond and option exchanges of the United States and Europe. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Van der Moolen had total revenues of € 327.6 million in 2002 and employs over 500 people in the Netherlands, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Liquidity is the lifeblood of public markets, and Van der Moolen’s strategy is to benefit from the growth of trading volumes on the world’s most important securities exchanges, independent of the direction of security prices. Our success is built on the efforts of high quality, professional traders with a depth of experience and knowledge of their markets and a stake in the financial performance of their operating units. Diversification and our highly motivated trading teams have provided our shareholders with attractive, stable profitability, while the organization’s structure, controls, trading discipline and remuneration policies ensure a balanced risk profile.
International Entrepreneurial Success
Van der Moolen has an internationally diversified business base. Total revenues have increased more than five-fold over the past six years, and we continue to pursue growth opportunities in US and European equity, option and bond markets.
Our company was one of the leaders in the consolidation of specialists on the Amsterdam securities exchanges. Since 1996 Van der Moolen has actively participated in the consolidation of specialists on the New York Stock Exchange. We are now the fourth largest NYSE specialist in terms of issues traded and fifth largest in terms of traded value, accounting for more than 10% of Big Board dollar volume.
Van der Moolen is also an active trader on three option exchanges in the United States. In Europe, Van der Moolen is a leading equity trader on the Dutch and French Euronext markets as well as the German, Swiss, Finnish and British exchanges, with limited activities in derivatives in some of these markets. In 2001, we launched a London-based market making operation in bonds, in parallel to our existing Dutch bond trading operation. Van der Moolen has strategically positioned itself with unique trading capabilities. As the only independent New York Stock Exchange specialist active in size on many non-US exchanges, Van der Moolen is positioned as the partner of choice for international companies seeking to list on the NYSE and support the liquidity of their ADRs or global shares. In Europe, as a pure proprietary trader without a role as intermediary, our traders are in a position to optimize their trading participation without compromise.
Profitable, Professional, Reliable
Our NYSE specialist business dates back to the 1930’s. Today, as the 4th largest specialist, the firm is well positioned in the world’s largest equity auction market. As an international trading organization, we operate on a variety of exchange platforms where our traders supply low cost liquidity as specialists or as proprietary traders, whether in Europe or in the US. We execute an average of more than 75,000 transactions a day, realizing income by taking intraday trading positions, and, to a limited extent, from agency commissions. In this way, we facilitate liquidity in the market and therefore immediate execution of investors’ orders, which otherwise would not have taken place or would have been executed at inferior prices. Our business model ensures an attractive risk profile for the company. Of the 255 trading days in 2002, we were able to close 245 with a positive trading result.
New York Stock Exchange Specialist
We foster a continuous market for the shares of the companies we represent, and catalyze transactions by bringing natural buyers and sellers together. By deploying our own capital, we minimize temporary order imbalances that routinely develop. As specialists, we act as a counter-balancing force to help reduce market volatility and make trading in the common shares and other listed instruments of our 379 assigned companies as liquid and as accurately priced as possible. We are committed to providing the best possible markets in the stocks of the issuers we serve, and to delivering the best, most accurate and timeliest information to all of our listed companies.
US Option Markets
On the American Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, Van der Moolen trades options on equities and indices, as a specialist and proprietary trader. With over 150 specialist assignments, we have a strong market position on the Amex, through our 51% interest in Cohen, Duffy, McGowan.
European Trading
In Europe, Van der Moolen will benefit from the expected long-term growth potential of securities volumes, mainly driven by pension and corporate finance trends, and the opportunities to trade and arbitrage offered by the relative inefficiency of these markets. The electronic infrastructure of most European securities markets enables us to achieve growth from trading centers in Amsterdam, London and Cologne, from which we trade actively on the equity markets and some of the option markets of the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Finland. We are also an active trader on Amsterdam’s bond market. From London, Van der Moolen Bonds provides ’odd lot’ market making services in investment grade euro- and dollar-denominated government bonds and Eurobonds to professional intermediaries. We will add British pound instruments to our offering in 2003.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
