On Thursday, the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Toll Brothers was down another 4.2%. I did not see any reason for that. Then again, stocks have NEVER really needed a reason to rise or fall. Much of the fluctuations are essentially random, which is what makes investing perplexing and challenging.
News that the “flash crash” was caused by someone apparently manipulating the futures markets will be fodder for those convinced that “the markets are rigged”.
As far as I am concerned anyone who sold that day simply because the market was falling and locked in a loss has themselves to blame. The 99% who simply held through that little crash and who were mostly unaware it happened until the decline was over saw the market rise the next day or so and were not harmed. I spent zero time worrying about that flash crash.
I don’t condone trying to manipulate markets. I simply ignore it. In most cases it does not hurt me, in other cases it provides a buying opportunity and in any case there is nothing I can do about.