2012-01-20 16:45:40
Yesterday Google announced earnings. At 4:01pm EST, exactly. I was able to get the page at 4:01:05pm EST, and just as a joke at the exact same time I checked out after hours trading on GOOG. It was already down 8%, though 5 minutes earlier it was holding around even on close. Tell me, how anyone was able to parse that document in 4 seconds, place the trade, and have it go through after hours.
The system is already so corrupt and broken that anybody who isn't on the "in" shouldn't ever try to invest except for extreme long term. I don't know why a case like this would surprise anyone.
It's possible due to automated trading. If Google reported that their earnings were lower than expected even if only a small amount that could lead to some automated selling. That wouldn't require an analyst to read the report and decipher it before making a decision to sell/buy/hold.