For a stock that is owned and traded almost entirely by institutional investors, Chipotle’s chart is pretty nutty (see inset). Although CMG has been falling since January, if you eliminated just the two bearish price bars that I’ve highlighted, the stock would be trading unchanged to slightly higher over that time. Both of the air pockets occurred on news released minutes after the regular session ended at 4:00 p.m. More recently, CMG has been in a near-vertical climb, but my guess is that this stage-managed burst of strength will sputter out when it hits the trendline; it comes in around 668.96 today and 668.47 tomorrow. No better evidence could be adduced than this chart to show that the so-called ‘smart money’ is just a bunch of thimble-riggers trying to rip off the public and each other. It is only for their convenience that Chipotle operates restaurants and sells an actual product.
