At 4:00 there are no "residual" overlapping orders because overlapping orders are executed immediately. There's a window between 4:00 and 4:10 when you can place new orders which may participate in the closing single-price auction if they overlap with other orders. It's a long call to say that "someone really wanted this to close at 4.8c" if there's a small volume either way. Yes, traders try to play games with the auction; putting in a large high-priced buy order just after 4:00 and then cancelling it just before 4:10 might draw in lots of low-priced sells, which are then executed at a low price when the big buy order disappears. With a highly liquid stock you will get traders trying to push or pull in both directions and it's a lottery as to which orders are still there in the auction.
It's much more likely that some wanted out, and others wanted in, and the two sides met at 4.8c. Speculating that it was a) deliberately aimed at a specific price point, and b) for some specific tactical/strategic purpose is kind of meaningless for we retail numpties. There's no way to know if we got the reasoning right, or to take advantage of it if we did.
PCK Price at posting:
4.6¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
