This might be of interest at a time like this when the sp is...

This might be of interest at a time like this when the sp is drifting lower when others are rising;

"RULE NUMBER ONE:
ALL SHARP PRICE MOVEMENTS -- WHETHER UP OR DOWN --ARE THE RESULT OF ONE OR MORE (USUALLY A GROUP OF) PROFESSIONALS MANIPULATING THE SHARE PRICE.
This should explain why a mining company finds something good and" nothing happens" or the stock goes down. At the same time, for NO apparent reason, a stock suddenly takes off for the sky! On little volume! Someone is manipulating that stock, often with an unfounded rumor. In order to make these market manipulations work, the professionals assume: (a) The Public is STUPID and (b) The Public will mainly buy at the HIGH and (c) The Public will sell at the LOW. Therefore, as long as the market manipulator can run crowd control, he can be successful. Let's face it: The reason you speculate in such markets is that you are greedy AND optimistic. You believe in a better tomorrow and NEED to make money quickly. It is this sentiment which is exploited by the market manipulator. He controls YOUR greed and fear about a particular stock."

While I don't agree that manipulation is the only reason a stock rises or falls, I do believe that it happens often and that many investors do buy or sell for no reason other than following the herd acting on greed or fear. I think we are seeing that now. My guess is we had one significant seller and that selling has triggered others to sell. That's only a guess but the selling then makes others question why is it not rising with gold? Something must be wrong? Fear creates further selling until some significant buyers step up. Then after it's come back up to recent highs some of those that sold might decide everything must be ok after all and buy back in.

Of course at times something actually is behind the selling but this is usually the exception rather than the rule (NCM a month or two ago).

Just some thoughts for the think tank.