In yesterday's conviction of the Norweigan traders, the prosecution said the pair had given "false and misleading signals about supply, demand and prices" when

In yesterday's conviction of the Norweigan traders, the prosecution said the pair had given "false and misleading signals about supply, demand and prices" when they manipulated several Norwegian stocks through Timber Hill’s online trading platform. Anders Brosveet, the lawyer for Veiby, admitted that his client had learnt how the Timber Hill trading algorithm would behave in response to certain trades. However, he denied this amounted to "market manipulation". Brosveet told the Financial Times, They had an idea of how the computer would change the prices but that does not make them responsible for what the computer did. - Apparently it is ok for the computer to poll for supply, demand and prices.. but it's illegal for traders to do it. The last time I checked it is a free market out there, I guess I missed out on the fine prints.