Meant to type "AIB":rolleyes:
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The Motley Fool has been pretty bullish of late.......
http://www.fool.com/investing/genera...ock-moves.aspx
The price hike is right
Raising subscription rates is a dicey move in this economy, but it's just what the doctor ordered for Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI). The satellite radio provider will be jacking up its $6.99 monthly fee for additional receivers within the same account to $8.99. It will also begin charging for its Web streaming service, as it dramatically upgrades the quality of the webcasts.
Is the move going to cost Sirius XM some subscribers? Undoubtedly. However, by telegraphing the mid-March hikes, it will prompt existing subscribers to pay up for lifetime subscriptions or to prepay for a few years to lock in the old rates. Since Sirius is a company that is desperately scrounging for cash to pay off many of its creditors this year, this is a great step to avoid bankruptcy without violating the FCC-mandated rate freezes on Sirius XM's more conventional pricing plans.
Demian, I want to thank you for all of the work and research that you do. It is most appreciated. It takes a ton of time out of your 24 hours and makes a real contribution for all SIRI owners.
Again, thanks!
Bill
It does not work that way. The broker has an inventory of shares that belongs to the broker, that is why they have a short list. The margin requirement has nothing to do with where the shares come from. Your broker requiring you to have a margin account has to do with leverage.
You wanna know why it does not work that way ? Lets say that you have 1000 shares of SIRI with Ameritrade that you bought @ .15 the price rises and then I come and short 1000 @ .17. Ameritrade takes your shares and lend them to me, right ? you do not sell because the shares have been appreciating, you are greedy and want more money for them, right ? but what happens next is that, I as a shorter, was right and the price starts coming down. Remember, I have your 1000 shares that are loosing value and I am happy. Next, the shares continue loosing value, .16, .15, .14, .13... I do not want to cover because I am making money, and I am also greedy, however... you panic !!!! and want to sell YOUR shares @ .13 that your broker lent ME... how is he going to return the shares to you so that you can sell them ??? I do not want to give them back, I am making money for crying out loud !!!
That is why your broker MUST HAVE an inventory of their own and they can not lend more shares than what they have. If they do, then they are making "NAKED" calls and that is ILLEGAL.
Can you imagine a market maker manipulating the price ? They have thousands and even millions of shares... They do it, especially during the first 1/2 hour of trading and at the end of the day, perhaps the last 15-10 minutes of trading, when they need to balance their inventories...
So that explains the big buys and sells at the beginning 1/2 hour to hour of the trading day?
That is why at the close there is big buying or usually selling?
So, there is two sets of trading going on. The market makers and regular people and it is happening at the same time, right?
Exactly. Market makers are what their name implies and then there's a bunch of other traders like the "specialists".
http://www.sec.gov/answers/specialist.htm
"A specialist is a member of a stock exchange, such as the New York Stock Exchange, who performs several functions. Specialists must make a market in the stock they trade by displaying their best bid and asked prices to the market during trading hours. They also are required to maintain a "fair and orderly market" in the stocks they trade. They do this by stepping in with their own capital to help reduce market volatility when there are not sufficient buyers or sellers. The rules of the exchange prohibit specialists from trading ahead of investors who have placed orders to buy or sell a security at the same price. The number of stocks a specialist trades depends on how active the stock trades, but most specialists trade between five to ten stocks."
The market makers are the worst though:
"A market maker is a firm that quotes both a buy and a sell price in a financial instrument or commodity, hoping to make a profit on the bid/offer spread, or turn."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_maker
Here's an excerpt of the above definition for market makers that I usually find disturbing:
"Proponents of the official market making system claim market makers add to the liquidity and depth of the market by taking a short or long position for a time, thus assuming some risk, in return for hopefully making a small profit. On the LSE one can always buy and sell stock: each stock always has at least two market makers and they are obliged to deal."
How can you compete with them ??? It is quite an un-leveled play field.
You have really put all of this into perspective extremely well and I appreciate it. I never realized that we were such a system working within a system. That explains why when somebody is shorting the hell out of a stock you all of the sudden see somebody show up buying tons of 100 share lots in a row and then other times selling 100 share lots, right?