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When I sometimes scan down after hours price changes, I notice tickers where there is a single last transaction that has a huge effect on the AH price.

This is not an anomaly. I see it everyday on a variety of tickers. Sometimes you see an AH transaction like these that is unexpectedly followed by a regular AH transaction. For example, in the attached image, if there happened to be another AH transaction at 5pm EST for say 58 shares at $8.21, some time after that, before AH close, there will be another single share transaction like the one at 4:02pm to drop the AH price by 8% in this example.

Who benefits from that price being skewed in one direction or another? Is this AH anomalous price used by institutions to determine if a trader/investor gets a margin call etc.?

Bob Baerker
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Captain jeff irons
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1 Answers1

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Sometimes, it's just bad data which is subsequently corrected.

Another possibility is that someone made a fat fingered trade. During after hours, bid/ask spreads tend to widen, sometimes dramatically. If someone inadvertently places a market order, they get a bad fill and you see a large price change.

Brokers are aware of real problems versus anomalies. The average daily volume for TNP is nearly 100,000 shares so if 100 shares trades at an unrealistic fat fingered absurd price, it's not going to create a margin call. And even if it did, when trading resumes in the morning, it's self correcting. The exception to this might be sleazy brokers like Robinhood but a traditional discount broker would not act on anomalous trading.

Bob Baerker
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