February 2024 Friday’s e-links: A Stock Price Pop

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I like to think of them as my e-links:

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Friday’s e-links 2/16/24

This week, you could have seen what happens when bots go bonkers. It all began last Tuesday when Lyft reported its earnings after the closing bell. Including a projection that one of its margin metrics would ascend by 500 basis points (5%), the report was rosier than anyone expected. At that moment, some of us should have remembered that when the numbers are too good to be true, they usually are not. With Lyft, the prediction was a typo. It really should have been a more likely .5%. The problem though was the trading response. Reflecting the bots that are programmed to respond to anomalies, the stock price popped:

But still, the company’s report was better than expected. As a result, the stock went up: A slew of articles, here, here, and here, described the error and its aftermath.