Ohhh.. now you have to add even more insults to your answer, like "everything that occurs (in my mind) is a manipulation". You never quit do you? NIO on Tuesday with the huge buy orders that went through had a huge run up on Wednesday. AMZN had similar orders and the next day exhibited unusual strength. Keeping an eye for opportunities after seeing the big guy's volume the prior day.. could be a more realistic strategy than your assumptions, since they proved to be what most people did.. who benefited.
Great, then maybe "manipulation" is a profitable strategy for you to use. I'm not smart enough to discern manipulation. I just think the market is full of people trying to make good investments (for the most part) and occasionally weird shit happens. So my strategies are based on this idea.
I've seen hundreds of posts, at least, beyond those just in this topic over the years talking of manipulation and rigging. None that ever explain and prove the poster gained anything in their bottom line from this "knowledge".
I would agree, small caps with thin volume are prone to manipulation and I suspect one could make a winning strategy here. But it's too negative of a mindset for me.
“Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.” - Bernard Baruch And fall AAPL did today. GOOGL and MSFT too.