4 ms·
This particular instance aside, what possible sane regulatory changes could discourage this sort of manipulation? Modern social media is poking holes in a syste
by xyzzy_plugh 5y ago
This particular instance aside, what possible sane regulatory changes could discourage this sort of manipulation? Modern social media is poking holes in a system that reacts too slowly and too inconsistently when questionable actors stir the pot.
The only thing I can think of is a slower exchange, where trades happen on the order of days, or better yet weeks or months, where this sort of thing becomes a wash.
I have no interest investing in hype speculative bubbles, I'd rather place medium to long term bets on industry players. Or maybe the solution is just to stop reading the news?
- axg11 5y agoIs this type of manipulation really a result of social media? It was entirely possible before: rich investor announces purchasing of a large stake in public company, event is reported in traditional media (newspapers), rich investor is offered and accepts board seat, rich investor backs out.
- noduerme 5y agoNot new at all. What I think might be new is the confluence of that type of manipulation with a much more primitive pump style that's been greatly amplified by social media. When I was about 21, I opened my first trading account. On E*Trade. Early days for online trading. I spent a lot of time researching stocks, but I was just a kid and was pretty unhip to the many ways things could be manipulated. Thank God there wasn't WSB at that point. So one night I'm sitting at a restaurant bar, waiting for food, and these two stock brokers are sitting next to me talking about a series of trades they were planning on a penny stock, a startup drug company. Natch, I listened in and they noticed and were happy to share their inside info with me. "It's $0.10, just make sure you unload it at $0.50. No more than a week." Great. I went home, looked at this thing, and put in an order for about a third of my savings. It was an OTC stock. Three days later, it shot up to $0.60 and I tried to sell it. And........ nothing happened. E*Trade was a no go. Couldn't make them execute it on the phone. The stock started to spiral. Next day, no sale. No market maker. No one buying. Stock collapsed to $0.05. I called my dad and told him about this wild ride and all he said was, "you got hustled by those guys at the bar." And incredibly, that had never occurred to me. Take that level of innocence, multiply by a few million young investors on social media who think Elon is Jesus, and, well, market manipulation can scale up exponentially.
- rvz 5y ago> Or maybe the solution is just to stop reading the news? Partly. Always be skeptical on what is reported on the news, especially the mainstream media. Twitter is just an echo chamber of brainless parrots manipulating users for their clicks who believe everything on the platform, even with a silly verified checkmark.
- bwilliams18 5y agoEnforcement is what discourages manipulation. The SEC could make a case that Elon intentionally manipulated the stock, (particularly with his late and then mis-filing of the 13G and 13D), that he then announced he was going to join the board only to then reverse only a few days later. The final key piece of evidence will be any further trading activity; has he already begun to sell his stake? If so it doesn't look good. They can see his trading activity without any public disclosures. Given his history of manipulating Tesla stock via Twitter, and violation of the settlement, and then the recent shenanigans around his selling stock to pay for taxes, I'm sure they're already taking a close look at him.