Well, yes it does seem that way. And I'm also quite sure that manipulation is rampant in the markets, hurting honest investors, while the regulator turns a blind eye. We should be very intolerant of that. But it's not always manipulation:
Most of us I'm sure spend time looking for shares to buy that will make us a profit. To do that, we look for shares that are "too cheap". Then we buy them and wait for them to go up as expected.
But our attitude towards the shares changes at that point. When we first identify the "bargain", we try to buy at the lowest point possible - a further drop in share price is great. After we have bought, a drop in share price is painful, and we don't understand why everyone can't see what we see (even though we traded in the first place on the basis that we had just seen something that everyone else clearly couldn't see).
So the answer is to buy more whenever a share price is pushed well below its value, and to then be patient. As the company's results come through, sentiment changes, and we can take our profits.
SXY's major profit growth is still in the future, so, even though it is obvious to some of us, sentiment has not yet changed.
As Warren Buffett (?) said, the stock market is a device for transferring wealth from the impatient to the patient.
I was down 50% on SXY at one point. Very painful. But without any more buying or selling, I'm now up 50%, and expecting a lot more. In time.
SXY Price at posting:
36.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
