Looking any market chart its not hard to see that a selectgroup of people controlls when and where that stock goes, price-wise and make the movement waver between, say $10 and $16 for DAYS. That said, i understand how someone can set a low on it (by buying in with a low limit set) but how can they set the high? And why would anyone want to do that, when they make more money with every tick the stock goes upwards? It akes NO sense to me
Markets and assets used to bubble upwards, but shorting means you can sell at a higher price and make money on a future lower price. Before bitcoin was shortable, it also bubbled up like all classical bubbles. These mispricings tend to escalate consequences if nobody is interested in taking the opposite trade.
The chart wouldn't tell you this, the order book would. That being said you're correct for the most part depending how you define group of people. I don't really think in general if you picked any random stock/contract a cabal of people "in the know" control it. However, if you look at indexes and the large stocks that control them you can definitely see there are a handful of equities that mostly determine where it's going that day. The same way they always have. Once the market hits your target price after your pump, sell the stock using a limit at defined intervals until its brought back down to the place you want to buy more. They also make money on the way down. A guy with 2,000,000 shares of $XYZ wants to get rid of them. They go to a liquidity provider who takes a massive short position against it. They dump the stock inside the specified price range netting the desired average profit for the person and their short position. Ignoring that conspiracy though markets do have limits in terms of absolute value. Despite what Donnie wants us to believe a market can't march up forever. Sometimes you just need to get it a little shove downward to get the ball rolling.
But Scat is correct. Trade where you are not head to head with WHO, because they will always win, they are bigger. It doesn't matter WHO who is unless you are of equivalent financial power and need to finesse your tactics to overcome WHO's capabilities to re-assert your edge. Trade in markets where WHO cannot so readily manipulate prices contrary to TA. By the way, Sun T'zu is a great read for traders.