Other than buy/sell volume...

[KellosJ]

...What makes a stock move one way or another. I looked at a stock today that moved 4% upwards with only 250 shares bought/sold in the first 4 hours of trading...what gives?

[njtrader]

there must have been a wide spread between the bid price and the ask price... someone brought it at the ask price therefore moving it up 4%... sounds like a thinly traded stock..

[KellosJ]

Thx nj...Here is another example...stock is up 4.32% but only 5,150 shares traded?

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=ESCC

[njtrader]

.13 cent spread.. extremely thinly traded stock.... you have to be real careful with these... if you want to buy it immediatley you'd have to pay 3.14.. then if you wanted to immediatly sell you would have to do it at 3.01.. therefore youd have to wait for the bid price to move up to 3.14 to be even...

[KellosJ]

Originally Posted by njtrader

there must have been a wide spread between the bid price and the ask price... someone brought it at the ask price therefore moving it up 4%... sounds like a thinly traded stock..

So why would the ask price be so much higher than the bid price? Isn't the market controlled by simple supply and demand...who is the SOB asking for so much more and the SOB actually buying it at that ridiculous price? So if I wanted to I could ask someone to buy shares worth $2.00 for $10.00? Wouldn't the authorities crack down on that kind of trading? Your response is appreciated nj...

[njtrader]

you can put a 2.00 stock out for sale at 10.00 you are just going to have alot more people in front of you at a lower price... which means they have to eat through all the shares for sale in front of you before they get to you... in the case of the previous stock mentioned, there just doesnt seem to be any market makers interested in trading the stock same goes for the public... if someone came in and just started buying at the ask the stock would move upward relatively easily with little resistance... I'd have to look on level II quotes to see just how easy though...

[njtrader]

62% of escc's current float is owned by institutions so the public owns 38% of the float... if the institutions start selling this thing could tank... and fast...

[KellosJ]

Originally Posted by njtrader

62% of escc's current float is owned by institutions so the public owns 38% of the float... if the institutions start selling this thing could tank... and fast...

Learning, learning, learning...I will have some more questions for you sir! Thanks for your input nj

[njtrader]

not a problem...