I came across an interesting question today, one that I have asked myself often too, especially after watching the Bears Stearns stock sell-off fiasco.
The questions is "why are there people who buy after the market moves up, and then starts coming down, and yet continue to buy? For instance, I cannot explain why anyone would buy the QQQQs and the Dow after 1:45PM today. The market is coming down. So what is in their mind to tell them to buy a thing that is coming down?"
The responses to the question were equally interesting.
"How can you tell that the markets have reached a short term top?"
"Possibly shorts who got squeezed by shorting due to negative news and not technicals.The relentless buying is possibly their stop loss orders. When those are all all cleared then the market can rest and correct."
"I don't know who they are but I'm glad they exist. Otherwise who would take the other side of the trade?"
"Not everybody is a daytrader. Wink Wink. If you are mutual fund then you don't care about short term tops or bottoms."

My response: People do not know how the market functions, or how to spot a top.
Labels: Trading Information