another subprime victim, page-197

A combination of things obviously. Fear amongst longs, greed amongst shorts, forced liquidations and daily headlines screaming about billions being wiped out, inflation, mono-line insurers (who know one had heard of until last week and still don't understand very well). That was last weeks "reality".

All that the NY Times article was saying is that sentiment is everything and some people will attempt to manipulate sentiment. It applies just as much in bull markets as bears. I would have thought it was stating the bleeding obvious to an experienced trader?