This is what I think the powerful/‘sophisticated’ shorters do...
Trading through multiple accounts, say MS&Associates and MS&Co (any resemblance to actual Companies purely coincidental), they buy and sell to each other, taking the share price where they want (using program (bot)-driven trades).
If MSA short sells 1000 units to MSC at $10, and MSC sells them back at $9, they drive the price down. Rinse and repeat. One’s profits are offset by the others gains, and their overall exposure hasn’t changed. Do Brokers pay brokerage?
So, almost all the orders we see up on our screens belong to just a handful of powerful players attempting to manipulate the market. All in my opinion of course.
The situation would get tricky for the shorters if other powerful players took the opposing trade but perhaps an unwritten rule not to interfere for fear of repercussions.
The retail investor makes the shorters job easier by selling into weakness. If we buy that weakness the shorters may find they’re running low on shares. They need to reload and those are some of the big buy orders you see lower in the buy queue, which almost always magically get hit. I suppose it’s not that hard to create fear when you’re selling to yourself.
Of course I have no evidence that this takes place but it is always peculiar to me why so many related Companies of the same firm need to trade the same share.
For us, the retail investor, always best to remember there’s only
one way to make money - BUY LOW & SELL HIGH. Every time we do that we make the shorters work just a little harder.
My amateur opinions only
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