Can I tell who is buying and selling stock on nasdaq?

EyceMan: Can I tell who is buying and selling stock on nasdaq?
When I see a big spike in volume on a chart, is there any way to tell if that was one big seller who threw a big order to lots of little fish as opposed to one big buyer who suddenly came in and grabbed holdings from dozens of little sellers? Are stock transactions hidden from public view or can I get that info in realtime or even a few days later?

I want the info just to be able to consider volume to price ratios when looking at price fluctuations.

Answers and Views:

Answer by v b
There’s no way to tell as a member of the general public.

This is one of the reasons that Madoff wasn’t detected. People who tried to blow the whistle on Madoff pointed out that the volume of transactions he *claimed* to have done for his clients just wasn’t reflected in the volumes of stock/options traded that day (similar to how the original Charles Ponzi’s was caught). The SEC didn’t bother to do the math and didn’t try to confirm any of the trades as actually having happened.

This despite the fact that some of the clearing houses Madoff claimed to have used swore he wasn’t a client.

Answer by dos_fossil
You used to see who is buying and selling with a level 2 real-time trading platform, when the bid/ask spread was in fractions. At that time you could see the market makers line up on the bid or ask and see the buying pressure or selling pressure.
It is almost impossible to see that now because the average trader got wise to that play and when the bid/ask was changed to pennies it leveled the playing field, making it more difficult to actually see who is buying and who is selling. Also, there are Electronic Networks [ECN]’s that market makers can use to hide their identity.
Under image in Google type in level 2 and you can see what a level 2 screen looks like. I think cost of level 2 quotes is around $ 250.00/month.
Brokers and market makers accumulate their stock over time scaling in and out to hide their identity. What you are looking for is exactly what they are hiding.

Good Luck,

Answer by Max M
No.