barrytrot wrote:These quick "down then up" movements are (in my opinion) not "da boyz" necessarily simply smart traders colluding to hit people's "stops".
It's an easy technique that I would love to hear a nice "belly store" from Neil about (seriously!) where you just do a small volume dip down in price, trigger a bunch of stops and then buy them up and restore the value for a quick profit!
It's similar to "Trading Places" where they had insider knowledge and substantially altered the price of OJ
btw, "Trading Places" was written WITH the Belly Pit in mind...Danny and John Belushi, BOTH Second City regular cast members were fascinated withthe concept of the "floor"...Trading Places was written for John (RIP) and Dan, but John , poor guy...you know...now the Belly pit habitues said NO....and for probably PRETTY good reason, the sh*t river WAS that high...them boys didnt want NO LIGHT cast on their game....uh uh...no way........what it was probably written about was the quarterly Pig Crop report...which came at 2 pm, an hour after close.....prior to the report, there would a consensus about what the guys were "looking" for...it was all predicated on the year before being "100%"....so, that if the number came in 98%...that is 2% less than last year?...and we were trading at say 62.50?
the next morning, watch out......at 9:09 and thirty seconds, you hear whispers, 'what's here? whats here?"......"bid limit on a hunnerd"
and at 9:10, the bell would ring, screaming starts, "LIMIT ON A HUNDRED!!!!" (64.50) and maybe there might have been 230 cars to sell...those would have been quietly allocated...because what you could expect was two more days of limit up bid.....66.50....then 68.50 the third day, and then probably a 3.00 sell off to 65.50...then a crazy 2.50 point to 68.00...then another 1.00 sell off to 67.00...and we would close at 67.42...up .92....but the whole key is this, getting some of those 230 cars offered on the first day at 64.50.
you might ask me, "well, why not get long near the close, the hour before the pig crop report...when it was at 62.50?
good question, but see nobody would KNOW if the pig crop report was coming out at 98% of last year, BULLISH...or 102% of last year, BEARISH......guys would always ask each other, "what are you doing?" (meaning do you have any cars on?...long or short)..and the usual answer would be, "i'm going into this thing (the pig crop report) flat"......"flat" meaning NOTHING on.....
the plot of the original film, was that "Beaks" got a copy of report EARLY...and then the boys "switch" the REAL purloined report that showed 102% (BEARISH) with a phony purloined report that showed 98% (BULLISH)....and the Duke Brothers, start the day buying everything offered, the boys, Dan and John (not Eddie) start to sell, the Dukes wonder what THEY KNOW and then like magic..the TV feed DIRECT from the USDA comes on.......drum roll........102% "Ample supply of Bellies!!!"
SOLD!!!!!! SOLD!!!! SOLD!!!!!!.....then the boys start to buy back their shorts....
but the wise men of the Belly Pit, who now look up at Abraham and Lazarus, from the pit of fire, begging for just a drop of water to cool their tongues...these wise men decided NO.......this would cast a bad light on the upright trade of frozen green seedless Pork Bellies...and we wouldnt want that.
as a side note, when they would lock limit, either up or down, there might be 1,000 cars bid or offered at the limit, so trade would cease, a LOT of guys would split, go upstairs, me and my brother would stay, we had to mind the desk. Usually, every day was a like a war, i;d have 2 phones in my ears, or i'd be in the pit, but now we're just hanging out.....and i came up with a game, called "Grade "em", which is, usually about 10 to 15% of the floors population was female runners, these were various nieces, granddaughters, daughters, kept women, who were paid to run orders......my brother would stand by the pit with a pack of trading cards in his hand, one side was the "buy" side, the other was the "sell" side...these were blank, i'd stand across, by my phones, we were drectly facing the pit...and every female runner that came by, would get graded...lots of 7's.....a few 3's.....and a few 10's...that was a hard rating...i liked the 'everyday, girl next door" look...so a 6-7..would get a 9 on my card...whereas he would put 5, then we'd flip at the cards at each others heads.......and we'd flip 'em fast!.....like frisbees....and duck the cards flying at you. its the flick of the wrist. We both been marksmen anyway,so this was like shooting, except it was frisbeeing cards.
hey, i was 23, he was 26, what can i say? those were fun days, and we knew they wouldnt last.