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morning. looks like the tree shaking has begun in anticipation of the next rns.

bos - I agree - excessive mark downs on minimal volume, though I see a few canny buyers are snapping them up at the bargain prices.

Some intruiging 'B' and 'M' transactions going on - rapidly shifting the bid/offer to 21p/21.75p.

This suggests that some brokers and MMs were getting short of shares and are topping up from their mates in anticipation of the next news.

If buying pressure is strong and some of these guys don't have many shares to sell, the price will rocket!

Very interesting, og. Many brokers double as MarketMakers - is there any clear distinction in the code? Evolution, for instance, are MMs in SEO but will they necessarily be shown as M if trading? Doesn't it also tend to distort the figures used for such things as momentum: a B or M sale must also have a buyer so there must be a case for leaving them out of the various analyses. The other thing I noticed from looking at the transactions was evidence of short selling early in the day with buyers coming in at aound 9 a.m. as the institutions arrived for work! If thats the case, then these efforts aren't working and are likely to peter out. I tend to agree that the next RNS is likely to lead to a break-out north, even if it is "just" confirmation of the completion of the ASDA supplier trial and initial order, initiating the 1 year exclusivity deal.

Eric

I have just had an "interesting" conversation with the fund manager at one of the major Fund Managment (insurance company) houses. A FTSE 50 company - I cannot give names - just in case they monitor the board.

First I asked him whether SEO was on his radar - and he confirmed that they were aware of it - but when I asked him if he could comment on whether he thought it was a good investment and would they be buying it - he apologised - but did not think he could talk to me about it any further.

Now I dont know how to read that - whether that was standard policy - or whether they have an interest or not - nevertheless - the fact that it was on their radar was good news. I thought it worth letting U know

Baza

Interesting, baza. A big advantage of going through the 100m cap barrier is that it automatically comes onto the radar of many fund managers. Also the small-cap index. Then we come back to a somewhat low liquidity and there is potential for an exciting surge on the next piece of significant news.

Eric

og: 1,003,000 and 500,000 trades gone though as X; forget what that is or is it unknown; if so, why? EWR

X is a transaction effected as an agency cross or a riskless principal transaction at the same price and on the same terms (this requires one trade report) - which leaves me none the wiser frankly!

SD

Agency cross - Agency crosses occur when a broker receives perfectly offsetting trades simultaneously. The broker must send down the orders to the trading floor, announce the bid and manually cross the trades after no better bid is made.

Riskless Principal - This is a principal transaction that synthesizes an agency transaction by removing the risks involved with holding a position. Large institutions might have legal and regulatory reasons for performing such a transaction.

When a broker-dealer is acting on its own behalf, as opposed to brokering transactions for its clients, it must properly denote to the exchange that it is doing so. These kinds of transactions are also known as "principal transactions".

I agree with bos I will never understand how it works, just been looking at TFC it has NO buys at all today not one yet the sp is only down 1% ? .

me 'ead 'urts!!!

if the last two large trades were indeed sells, then that's the tree well and truly shook.

Suspect those last two large trades are buys. At the time of the transactions, at 20.98p and 21p, the spread quoted was 20.75 to 21.25. The best selling transactions around that time were 20.80p, whereas other buys were close to 21p. I suspect that most 'O' selling is smaller quantities; institutions and larger investors are likely to be more recent holders and thus to be primarily in buy mode.

Sympathy with bos's hurting head - think I'll lie down to recover! I thought the computer was king, so its rather sweet to see them trotting off down to the trading floor and manually trading their transaction with themselves! We seem to be getting a lot of these mysterious large transactions, suggesting that SEO is becoming a serious play for major players. What thinkest thou God and Dog?

Eric

quite possible eric. it would support tfc's theory about there being a large , mysterious, enigmatic buyer lurking furtively in the shadows, slowly but surely filling his boots. he must have very big boots!!!!!

I'd put the large unknown at 21p as a buy, but the large odd amount trade at 20.98 as a sell - someone clearing their entire holding including any odd placing amounts received - buys at that size tend to be round numbers, I feel. Maybe someone who hung on to see if the steep rise would continue unabated and thought they'd cash in when the price started oscillating around the 21p level, having made a fair whack already. No matter, a little liquidity will help the market not to become too volatile.

Otherwise, I'm with Bos on this one - sore 'ead! Rather than waiting for the clock to reach midnight, I'm going to watch a bit of TV, safe in the knowledge that as time rolls ever forward, SEO will in general climb ever upwards for now.

If you really want to try to understand the market mechanism, let me attempt to regurgitate what I think I learned from bullshare at the trading day recently.

You have to imagine that there are a whole load of MM and level 2 buyers stacked up waiting to be satisfied at, say, 20.50p, 20.4p, 20.3p and below in various volumes in strata formation, highest price first in the cue; and on the other side a whole load of the same type of sellers asking 21.50 and above, lowest price first in the cue to be filled - there is a gap in the price, literally the bid/offer spread.

Gradually from one side or other someone decides they want the transaction to happen rather than hold out for the price they wanted and they creep ("walk") the price towards the middle ground, until an opposite number (a bit like a trout rising to a fly?) steps into the middle ground and says - fair enough deal done. So a matching buyer and seller each disappear from the front of the cue. I do not know whether this is reported as a buy or a sell - I suspect it is reported as the action of whoever finally took the last step in to meet the price - if a buyer steps up to cover the offer, then its a buy; if a seller lowers their expectations to meet the price it's a sell. Whoever moved off their block to make the transaction happen is an individual choice, not a market moving choice and could be from either side as far as Level 1 punters are concerned, we won't ever know. Meanwhile the stand off published bid/offer spread is static. Big trade, no change. Imagine many of these throughout the day - all sells, no change to the SP.

More complex - a buyer, say, thinks the SP is worth more on some new news or analysis and wants to acquire a significant tranche ahead of the crowd. S/he steps up to a price of say 21.75, taking the entire first line of seller defence at 21.50p down in one plus a few more further down the cue at 21.6, 21.7 and as many at 21.75p as the volume of buy order will cover. So, the front line of attack from buyers is still at 20.50, but the front line of defence from the sellers is now at 21.75. Other buyers, may well shufle forward to take up a forward position of 20.75p, inspired by the first chap and hoping to lure a defending seller down to this new level. This is when the published bid/offer will actually move to 20.75/21.75, I believe.

So actual buying and selling that we see at Level 1, whilst indicative, does not truly express the appetite sitting (visible to Level 2 players) and what volume of seller is "taken out" by a volume buyer, or vice versa, if someone believes the value should or will fall and is prepared to capitulate across the existing bid/offer gap to get their holding safely away.

When pent up volume demand leaps across the gap like this, sentiment (fear and greed get temporarily out of balance when the crowd see one or more significant transactions moving away from the status quo ) can magnify the movement into quite a sudden and seemingly inexplicable shift up or down the ladder. Followed by the often seen settling back from the extreme first SP movement, when they realise the world is not going to end tomorrow.

The bid/offer spread is not created by each MM, saying if you buy from me it's this price, if you esell to me it's that price; rather each MM at any given time is a buyer or a seller by sentiment, placing waht we see as the offer or bid price respectively on the common counter top of the electronic market-place, waiting so see if anyone agrees with them. Obviously an MM can change its point of view if they spot a silly price somewhere on the counter that they can swallow and still make a turn when they re-price it in the opposite direction. So, I am not sure we are corect to balme MM's for a big bid/offer spread, since no one MM controls both prices at the same time - it is the market appetite unrequited that determines where these opposing prices sit in an endless game of trench warfare, win a little lose a little ground, but you're sure as hell gonna end up covered in mud which is by happy coincidence an apt simile for the clarity of this short treatise on the human condition.

Is this making any sense at all? Well, you did ask for it.

Here endeth the lesson.

SD

sd, now my 'ead 'urts even more!!!!!!

so , basically, looking at level 1 means you only get to see the tip of the iceberg. whereas level 2 lets you see whats going on under the water. therefore, anyone without access to level 2 really doesn't have a clue....
boo boop de doo!!(sorry, it rhymed)

pretty much, bos, but level 1 hurts your head less

L2 is much easier to understand when you are actually LOOKING at it. all the orders ( both buy and sell ) are listed as well as who is on the bid/offer. i strongly recommend peeps keep an eye open for L2 free access which is occasionally offered on this site.

i was dipping in and out of corus and making a hundred quid or so a trade, simply by buying if it dropped 2% or more, then selling when up a ton.

just about to have another punt when a free L2 trial appeared on the bb. had a quick look and spotted a huge wad of sells in the pipeline. saved me a bundle. shame my trading frequency doesnt justify a sub.

By gum! Insight! That dog has done it again: he's a very clever dog, putting his erstwhile masters and mistresses to shame.

Begin to see what level 2 offers; all the gobbledy gook didn't seem to amount to much. superrod, your use of level 2 is effectiely use it to determine when to sell or buy and at what price as you can see the oreders in the pipeline: is that right? Or can you join in the 'floor' electronically and match a bid or offer. 40 a month; in what sense that's not a lot if you can use the information to make even a few hundred on a number of trades.

Eric