It is amazing, the shitty things people do to each other.

I’m gonna try and take a blogging break. Break some old habits and ditch some ventures that never made me happy. see you in a few weeks.

my message

Intel (INTC), Oracle (ORCL), and at least 10 other companies have shed nearly 50% of their value in after hours trading. Nothing in the recent news feeds gives any indication why:

The worst 10 after-hours performers, from nasdaq.com.

Intel lost 49.5% of its value after hours.

Oracle lost 49.77% of its value after hours.

This must be a prank. In theory, just one prankster could have pulled this off. Right at the closing bell, just before 8pm, he could have sold one share of each of these stocks. He put a limit order so low that anyone with a standing buy order (at a much higher price, obviously) would have gotten a great deal – one share of INTC for half price. Computers handle all the trading and would instantly execute such a sale order. Since after hours trades don’t report volume in the same way as normal trades, this prank could severely worry investors!!

Unless the US high tech economy has totally collapsed since 4pm wednesday!

( I sure hope this is a prank. Buying 1 plane ticket to Kolkata just in case…)