Is there something funny about this situation that makes this footnote true? > If Makino's one-lot trades never executed against Fineline's big trades, they lo

Is there something funny about this situation that makes this footnote true? > If Makino's one-lot trades never executed against Fineline's big trades, they look like spoofing, which is illegal. If they did execute, though, they look like wash trades, which are also illegal. Either way, the actually important question is whether they were illegally tricking other market participants, not whether they were intended to execute. Wash sales aren't illegal, you just don't get to deduct losses from taxes. My understanding is that intention to execute is the main determination in spoofing.