Market manipulation

Market manipulation is a deliberate attempt to interfere with the free and fair operation of the market and create artificial, false or misleading appearances with respect to the price of, or market for, a security, commodity or currency.^[1] Market manipulation is prohibited in the United States under Section 9(a)(2)^[2][3] of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and in Australia under Section s 1041A of the Corporations Act 2001. The Act defines market manipulation as transactions which create an artificial price or maintain an artificial price for a tradeable security.

Examples

• Pools: "Agreements, often written, among a group of traders to delegate authority to a single manager to trade in a specific stock for a specific period of time and then to share in the resulting profits or losses."^[4]
• Churning: "When a trader places both buy and sell orders at about the same price. The increase in activity is intended to attract additional investors, and increase the price." (Not to be confused with another definition of churning, where a broker excessively trades a client's account to increase commission fees, which is not a market manipulation.)
• Runs: "When a group of traders create activity or rumors in order to drive the price of a security up." An example is the Guinness share-trading fraud of the 1980s. In the US, this activity is usually referred to as painting the tape^[5]. Runs may also occur when trader(s) are attempting to drive the price of a certain share down, although this is rare.
• Ramping (the market): "Actions designed to artificially raise the market price of listed securities and to give the impression of voluminous trading, in order to make a quick profit."^[6]
• Wash trade: "Selling and repurchasing the same or substantially the same security for the purpose of generating activity and increasing the price"
• Bear raid: "Attempting to push the price of a stock down by heavy selling or short selling."^[7]

References

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