Answers to the questions posed follow:
"Why is there a BID(?)"
A BID is an offer made by someone or some entity wishing to purchase a specified number of shares of a stock at a specified price.
"Why is there an ASK(?)"
An ASK is an offer of a specified number of shares of stock by someone or some entity wishing to sell those shares at a specified price.
"What is the significance of one vs. the other(?)"
They are both significant for there would be no transaction if there were not both a seller and a buyer.
"Today, there was 175K shares traded at the ASK; the balance was not. What if those numbers were reversed(?)"
At the end of trading, there would have been 1,200,000 shares traded on this day, with more sellers willing to accept less money for their shares than those who held out for a higher price. Their reasons for selling into the bid are known but to them.
If the numbers has been reversed, there would have still been 1,200,000 shares traded and it seems that your presumption is that the price would have gone up, however, the share price may well have ended the day with no change in value or even at a loss if the last trade of the day was the sale of 175K shares into a low ball bid.
Trusting that you read my previous post, you should understand that thinly traded stocks (such as this) are subject to manipulation by people and manipulation of the stock is more fundamentally manipulation of the minds of those other people who are trading the stock.
Markets are at least as much about the psychology of the traders as they are about the formulas they employ. This board seems to be bombarded with psychological banter pretty regularly, much of it designed to either try and advance or retard the share price by appealing to individual's fear and/or greed
The only thing that really matters for this or any other company in the long term is corporate revenue and profit. Revenue and profit (especially shared profit) can undercut the manipulators game, at least for a while.
Dividends paid out on any stock that is trading for pennies should drive up the price of the stock, If it happens, as was suggested it might for this stock, that would be nice. Even if the price holds it would not be a tragedy to get a 5 or 10 cent dividend quarterly on a 10 cent stock (but that is not likely)
"I think the answers to all these questions are obvious."
Now that they have been provided, I agree.
"In as much, you don't know what your (sic) talking about!"
I do know what I am talking about, however given that rather derisive comment, I shall skip over any your future comments on this board when checking in.
"Have a nice day."
You did not really mean that, did you? (The question was strictly rhetorical. I obviously would not see it anyway) Nevertheless I still advise you to go try to find that sunny spot, relax and have a beer. Perhaps it will make you a bit kinder and a less mean-spirited person someday.
To the other more civil readers of this. I apologize for this unfortunate exchange. I am done posting for the time being and going back to just checking in occasionally.
Best of luck to all the long suffering longs out there. Sounds like things could well be getting better based on this evening's breaking news but as one regular poster I recall often reading here was fond of saying: "We shall see"
