Manipulation

The act of moving a security’s price (either up or down) through fradulent means. Manipulators in a stock may collaborate with management of the company. They may buy a stock to make its stock price go up and then selling on unsuspecting investors who buy into it due to bullish announcements or simply because the stock price is going up. Circular trading and other methods that attempt to make a stock look more actively traded is also considered manipulation even if it does not necessarily impact the price of the stock.

However, many accusations of manipulation may be unfounded populist attempts to explain high prices in certain securities, like oil. A company’s management may blame  manipulation for a lower stock price to blame a faceless third entity, but the real result for the slump in the stock price may be weak fundamentals and poor management.