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JDPriestly

(57,936 posts)
2. Seems to me that the big hedgefunds COULD manipulate the markets
Sat Feb 16, 2013, 05:51 AM
Feb 2013

by sometimes buying and selling a lot and sometimes tapering off.

These practices should be illegal.

The companies acknowledge that they are "market making."
I should say so.

I think it would be possible for these fast traders to sculpt a market in which their winnings would be almost certain and the losses of a certain percentage of small investors would be almost equally certain.

Am I wrong?

Couldn't the algorithms be figured so as to amount to manipulating the market?

I realize that there is competition between the fast traders and their various algorithms, but seems to me that these heavy, fast traders could effectively "fix" the markets. It just should not be allowed. It looks like a swindle to me but maybe I don't understand how it works.

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