Interquest Share Discussion Threads

[dangersimpson2] 14/3/2017 18:19

Malc999,

do you know what factors influence an MM's decision making when moving their prices up or down?

I have no direct experience of market making but my understanding is that the vast majority of the time they are simply reacting to supply & demand. The way they profit is by having the maximum volume of trading so they will simply move the price to reflect the buys and sells and end with a neutral book.

Of course buying and selling behavior is not as logical as economists would have us believe. While normally a price drop in a commodity would cause people to consume more, when it comes to small cap shares then a drop in price might actually cause selling due to people worried that someone else knows something they don't or due to stops.

I'm sure market makers do make use of this behavioral anomaly occasionally to generate sells by dropping the price not raising it - the so called 'tree-shakes'. But it is probably indistinguishable from them simply receiving a large sell order. It is also a risky strategy for them since they may just generate buying volume. And of course there is usually more than one market maker so the response they want cannot be assumed. I personally think this tactic will be used a lot less frequently than most assume.

The answer to this is to know your companies well, invest in companies that don't tend to leak information and don't use automatic stops (or if you do accept that they have done what you asked them to.)

Anyway back to ITQ - I was pleasantly surprised with the results today - in line on adjusted EPS, vast majority of adjustment genuinely non-cash and one-off (goodwill impairment) net debt down and relatively positive outlook. If they can deliver on that outlook then I expect the share price to be significantly higher in a year's time.

[s34icknote] 14/3/2017 16:33

Well what swings in trade .Down 10 percent up 16.5 percent and finishes unchanged .Small caps for you !

[s34icknote] 14/3/2017 13:31

Your welcome king dongWhat were you saying re twenty percent rise ????Even bigger from today's low !Probably a few punters regretting selling first thing .Sicknote

[eastbourne1982] 14/3/2017 12:09

How predictable, first thing mugs sell, once they are out reality kicks in and the price is now heading up nicely, I can see these having a very good few weeks, I reckon we will see 50p before too long.

[king kong dong] 14/3/2017 11:03

Appreciate your posts this morning s34icknote....

[s34icknote] 14/3/2017 10:34

I tested this with a dummy sell this morning. 20 k at 35 p when Advfn was selling at 33.5pBuyers in the wings realising we are on a pe of five Sicknote

[king kong dong] 14/3/2017 10:19

A few buys coming in now....paying over the price too.

[eastbourne1982] 14/3/2017 08:53

Same old story, headline figures scare mugs into action, I was hoping they took it down to 30p, I was planning to double holding.

These will be 50p plus within 12 months.

[s34icknote] 14/3/2017 08:47

Surprised we opened down Punters panicking for no reason . Loss is goodwill only. Look at underlying figures.Expect some director buying today at these levels.Sicknote

[eastbourne1982] 14/3/2017 07:53

Happy with those results, reduction in debt is very impressive and key for me, if this continues to come down this company should be worth 30 - 40 million imho, current market cap is only 13 million !

[king kong dong] 14/3/2017 07:48

I hope you guys are right !

[2vdm] 14/3/2017 07:46

Yes it looks like they've plugged the holes and have refocused the business. It would be nice to see some upside today, but 20% may be optimistic. Good luck to all other LTHs.I think we will see a very different set of results in 12 months.

[s34icknote] 14/3/2017 07:40

In line 7 p eps Debt down from 9.9 to 5.8 m Business adjusted to adapt to new environment . Ship has steadied without a further profit warning .Would expect this to rise to 45p 50 p in the near term till next results .Dividend as well .Can see this up 20 percent today. Good luck all dyor Sicknote

[2vdm] 13/3/2017 13:14

good rise today ahead of results.

[malc999] 10/3/2017 13:30

Good points danger - just to further my knowledge, do you know what factors influence an MM's decision making when moving their prices up or down? I did read this somewhere once but didn't make a note of it and regretted it ever since. I do remember it basically saying it was supply/demand, i.e. the buys and sell orders, and company fundamentals influenced them the least.

[dangersimpson2] 09/3/2017 23:51

Buys and sells are not published by the exchange just the trade details. In fact every trade is a buy and a sell just some of them may be traded with a market maker. The reporting software that advfn etc use try to guess if it was a buy or sell based on the mid-point of the published spread at the time of the trade. Late trades like the 75k often confuse the simple software algorithm.

[As an aside you often see conspiracy theorists complain that 'mm's marked my buy as a sell' as if the mm's were trying to hide the information to manipulate the published price. In reality the mm's provide no such info for any trades and they were simply lucky enough to be able to buy below the published mid-price at the time!]

[s34icknote] 09/3/2017 20:48

Nervous pi been selling this down, with few buyers mms just mark it down. Could be a great top up time for the brave.

[malc999] 09/3/2017 17:04

According to Sharescope it was a buy, the trade went through just after the price dropped. Also Sharescope shows the 25k transaction just before 4pm as a buy at 33p.

[s34icknote] 09/3/2017 16:53

Was the 75 k a sell causing the fall ?

[s34icknote] 09/3/2017 15:00

Question will be weather it's already priced in and how are they coping with lower demand levels?

[malc999] 09/3/2017 13:49

Yes, at least no RNS's yet stating that Jim Mellon or II's are selling which is the most important thing. Maybe its just PI's selling because their stops are being hit, or maybe getting frightened that the prelims have been put back a week??

In the last trading update on 1st December 2017 ITQ said" In addition to the underperformance by ECOM, there have been lower levels of demand in the public sector compared to 2015 and a small number of large value placements have been delayed into 2017". Does anyone have any insight as to whether these placements have been filled or there are further delays?

[malc999] 02/3/2017 11:46

Oops, just re-read the last trading statement where ITQ stated that prelims would be released 7 March 2017 and I've had to edit this comment of mine - looks like results have been put back to 14 March 2017. Valuation is currently very attractive based on 2017E EPS of 7.6p; we will see next week if this is a realistic assumption!!

[dr know] 02/3/2017 10:38

Because in the trading statement on 1st December last they said "InterQuest Group plc (AIM: ITQ.L), the specialist recruiter, today announces the following trading update ahead of its full year results for the twelve months to 31 December 2016 which will be announced on 7 March 2017'"

[ptgint] 02/3/2017 10:28

Why do you think the results will be announced on the 7th March ? Yesterdays RNS said the 14th March.