The tale of two rallies

SPY’s 2010 price path for the 8th of October is about 3 points higher that the 2004 trend top line, but that is consistent with 2010’s considerably higher volatility. Recently there have been articles noting relatively low trading volumes, but compared to the normalized volume in 2004 (which at an absolute level was about 3.5x lower) volumes don’t look out of line. The rally that …

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The “Sell Algorithm”, the Flash Crash, and Limit Orders

The recent report from the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on the Flash Crash fingers an automatic sell program executed by a “Mutual Fund Complex” as the trigger of the crash.  Starting at 2:32 p.m. EDT on the 6th of May this program, referred to as the “Sell Algorithm” automatically sold short 75,000 E-Mini S&P futures contracts (approx 4.1 Billion dollars worth, equivalent …

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