People used to say that for small stocks they are responsible, but not big stocks. Do you think things are different now that they can take advantage of panic and fear? Please give practical examples. Also, to what extent do you think the surprising strength of the dollar relative to many other currencies has to do with manipulation?
1) Don't "take stock" in the notion of manipulation. Otherwise, you'll never take responsibility for your losses. 2) You could make an argument that it's easier to "manipulate" larger-cap stocks in today's environment because of the oligarchical nature of the banking and brokerage business, i.e. enormous amounts of institutional money are concentrated in the hands of fewer institutional investors and traders than ever before. 3) The dollar may be "strong" because of large-scale, speculative, short-covering. 4) The dollar may also be "strong" because foreign entities are supporting it so that their dollar-denominated assets don't lose more value. Take it with a grain of salt.
1) Retail investors don't engage in stock-picking as they did in the past. 2) Retail investors tend to be steered into managed products, i.e. mutual funds, hedge funds, pools et al, that are "professionally" managed by someone else and provide a more consistent flow of fees for the manager. 3) A substantial percentage of that money is traded by a relatively small number of "large" firms. 4) Those firms' opinion in the market has more "weight" than it did years ago. 5) Those firms tend to act on the same information at the same time giving more impact to their collective trading decisions. 6) The potential for manipulation can come about if the firms deliberately act in collusion with one another and/or their brokers.
A) ...and when these institutional traders also have market maker status, are they able to identify which orders are retail traders? B) It would seem to me though if they can do this, their counterparty could also be big fish, and they will succeed. C) If their counterparty is the specialist, are they ultimately usually doomed for failure--given that ultimately the specialist is in charge of the bid & ask, and his market making technology can be set to act in his favor whenever there is an opening of any sort--and given it seems the specialist/MM has special shorting privileges and hence can keep shorting till he topples almost any stock.
That link says the following: Over 85% of Retail Traders lose in the Markets - WHY? Because all markets are Manipulated by the "Smart Money" - Professional Syndicate Traders who see both sides of the Market. Technical Analysis and Fundamental Analysis are not able to detect the Manipulation, which is why the success rates in the Retail Trading Community are so low. If you don't believe the markets are manipulated, this Web Site is made for you.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here are my questions, also to Nazzdack--or anyone else who knows: Does the assertation that they can see both sides of the Market mean they can see who is a retail trader? Is this why seemingly very strong stocks (stocks with no subprime exposure) can fall 100% parallel with the industry--because they collectively decide they are gonna short EVERYTHING--and other institutional traders know to just get out of their way? Are these the type of traders the SEC was mostly targeting several months with their restricitions on naked shorting--and for a smaller period of time--on all shorting of financials? Finally, the GRANDSLAM QUESTION, do these guys work in conjunction with the specialist?