Courtesy of Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge
In this week’s update of "insiders selling to idiots", we find that the ratio of shares sold-to-bought by insiders is once again in the four digit range: 1,169 to 1 to be specific. In the past week, insider buying in S&P 500 companies amounted to only $286,000, the bulk of which was in MEMC (WFR). As for the selling: well, it appears ORCL insiders just can’t wait to dump as much as they can, as fast as possible. Oracle was promptly followed by such overpriced stalwarts as Google, Marriott, Autozone and Salesforce.
We wonder if these insiders provide direct or indirect kickbacks to the HFTs who keep bidding the stock up at incremental penny losses, yet are fully compensated for "providing liquidity" by the exchanges in the good ole’ liquidity rebate system. The silver lining: this certainly is an improvement on last week’s 2,341-1 ratio. Perhaps even the idiots are getting skittish about owning stocks without having access to the Fed’s backstop facilities. Also, keep in mind that the primary dealers have about $60 billion in Bills to repurchase past the End of quarter window dressing. Unfortunately, for the players in the hot potato game, this capital can only come from stock sales.
For those who believe last week’s data is an outlier, here is the weekly selling to buying ratio over the past month:
Source: Bloomberg
