In January of 1999 a specialist with UBS entered a 10 million share sell order for Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche. The transaction, which was for 42% more shares than the entire outstanding float, stood for two minutes before the same specialist entered a buy order on the other side of the transaction.
Chart Source: FACTSET
On January 4 2010, shares of Rambus dipped 30% in a matter of minutes. The NASDAQ, which has no specialists who could have prevented the trade, eventually blamed a fat fingered trader and busted the trades.
Chart Source: FACTSET
On the morning of the Japanese advertising company’s IPO in late November 2001, a trader at UBS Warburg attempting to sell 16 shares at 600,000 yen ended up offering 610,000 shares at six yen apiece causing the bid to drop 32.5% and the stock to open much lower than anticipated. The transaction eventually cost the firm $100 million as it bought back shares it sold.
Chart Source: FACTSET