Shadesofgrey, Yes, you are correct about market depth...

Shadesofgrey,

Yes, you are correct about market depth manipulation.

It does occur and what they do is place a buy or sell order afew cents from its price....say 5, 10 to 15 cents...as the price moves closer to their order they will take it off and go lower. It mainly tends to be larger orders.

What they do is try to paint a picture that Depth is strong on the buy side when really they are sellers and trying to make other buyers go higher while they are realy selling to the buyers paying more.If they are true buyers they will make the SELL side look strong pushing prices lower so they can snap them up at lower prices.

It is not easy to pick the ones that play this game, you need to watch DEPTH all day and practicaly every minute to see the play in action. Over time you will see orders there one minute and gone lower the next and so on.

Majority of the time it is TRUE Market Depth, but you do get the manipulation players come and go throughout the day....trying to play the game....it does not always work for them either.

So Yes, FAKE buy and sell orders do exist and is played by certain traders/fund managers etc...Just don't get too caught up in it, as i do not realy decide my trades on this.If a stock is going down or up IT WILL DO IT, they can not realy stop the move unless they are VERY BIG PLAYERS WITH LOTS OF $$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

All the best.

Cheers.