Is Something UP? New Buyers?

Total share volume came in at 50.3M for February. UBSS maintained its share volume (for the first time is the volume leader at 39%!) and Knight fell from 51% to 33%. So did UBSS win at Knight's Expense? NO! UBSS merely maintained its 39% share volume and others picked up market share from Knight. Last month UBSS and Knight's combined total was 72% compared to 90% the month before. The surprising story this month is that 12% total volume moved from Knight to these Market Makers:

HILL (Hill, Thompson, Magid and Co.) 3,977,788 shares in February - Have traded 670K shares in the last 14 months. Then almost 4M in February? - since they likely did not accumulate enough shares to sell 4M - the SkunK concludes they are likely buying . From always one or less than one percent - to 7% of total volume in February.
http://www.hillthompson.com/Default.aspx

ICAP Corporates LLC (GARC) 2,549,000 shares in February - NEVER purchased a share before - the SkunK concludes they are likely buying - 5% of total volume in February.
http://www.icap.com/ ************
Not to insult the reader, but obviously other things could account for these new market maker players. Here are just a few of them: Companies and people switch brokerage firms, brokerage firms switch market makers and stock gets transferred as the accounts move. Old players who have accumulated stock through the company, outside the normal trade routes, may be just now starting to sell. As I stated - the SkunK believes the most likely scenario is these two MMs represent new buyer(s). Like always - I encourage you to use this dd and draw your own conclusion.
http://www.otcbb.com/asp/tradeact_mv.asp?SearchBy=issue&Issue=GERS&SortBy=volume&Month=2-1-2009&IMAGE1.x=24&IMAGE1.y=8

Good Hunting,
SkunK