There's just a romantic connection with traders and all time...

There's just a romantic connection with traders and all time highs, as well as 6 months and 12 month highs. Many get in then to use it as a spring board to make their funds go well. If the stock reverses below the barrier then most will exit with a limited loss.

Part of it makes sense, as it's not what you pay for a stock, but where it goes once you've bought it. The more guarantees your buys are on the money the better your risk to reward returns are.

For me the most significant number is the all time high, simply because all holders are winners - none of them are needing to sell out to break even with a stock in question. Eg, if a stock falls from solid base of 40 dollars to 30 dollars, then you can expect many of the share holders will start to sell once the stock get very close to the 40 dollar range again. That puts much selling pressure on stocks as they retrace their falls. But once a stock is in virgin territory (all time high) then there's very little need for anyone to sell out except to take profits, etc.