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On September 23, 2022, at about 5:03 PM (ET), there appears to have been a single after-hours trade of about 220 shares of META at a price of over $289, well more than double its relatively stable trading price the entire day, as well as after hours before and after this trade.

What is the explanation for this? Is this an artifact of some otherwise normal process? I have not seen anything like this before, but admittedly, I don't often look at things like this, and I happened to notice this purely by accident.

BTW, I fully expect there to be a reasonable answer to this that everyone knows but me, and that therefore this question has nothing to do with META per se. But if I have somehow stumbled onto the scandal of the century, remember, you heard it here first!

Curious Novice
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    Most likely, it's bad data. Read this. – Bob Baerker Sep 25 '22 at 00:13
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    OK, thank you, that seems plausible, but whose data is bad? The answer given in the linked post suggests that if you check another service, the problem won't be there. In this case, I can see the same info from both Google and nasdaq.com. What data source is used by both? I guess that's what has to be bad. – Curious Novice Sep 25 '22 at 04:48
  • @BobBaerker, I notice that you also answered the question on the linked post. What/where is "time and sales," the place you said the info can be verified? Thx! – Curious Novice Sep 25 '22 at 04:55
  • Fat fingers? Blunders happen every day. Some are big enough to make the news, some barely noticeable, and anything in between… – jcaron Sep 25 '22 at 20:52
  • @jcaron, are you saying that -- even if by virtue of a fat finger typo of some sort -- 220 shares of META actually WERE traded at $289+? Or that the blunder only makes it LOOK like these shares changed hands at that price but actually were not? Please elaborate. – Curious Novice Sep 25 '22 at 21:33
  • @CuriousNovice I’m not saying it’s the case here (I haven’t even looked at the data), just that it may be a possibility. – jcaron Sep 26 '22 at 00:27
  • @BobBaerker How is "bad data" possible, and why is this an accepted explanation? – user253751 Sep 26 '22 at 16:36
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    @user253751 I agree with your sentiment. I might accept bad data as an explanation, but only with more detail about where that bad data came from, how it was introduced, and how and why it manifests itself the way it does.

    For example, no one so far can tell me whether this trade actually took place at that price (which would be a mistake, presumably, but nonetheless real), or whether the "mistake" was with faulty erroneous reporting somewhere.

    Computer glitches are never random, or just "one of those things." For various reasons, we often choose to view them that way though.

     – Curious Novice Sep 27 '22 at 20:06
  • Financial institutions, especially, aren't supposed to have random glitches! – user253751 Sep 27 '22 at 21:11
  • Anyone who has been in the market for years has seen bad data. If the entry at the source (the exchange) is bad, all data providers will report that (yahoo finance, Google, etc.). Time & Sales is provided by a decent broker. You can see every bid/ask price (with volume) for every trade made during the day. – Bob Baerker Sep 28 '22 at 15:48
  • @BobBaerker, again you've mentioned "Time & Sales," Where can I find that? How can I see the info you are talking about? That would be a very good way for me to find out at least part of what I'm asking. Is it online? Is it a report? Is it a service? Is it free? – Curious Novice Sep 30 '22 at 09:49

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