MM's sell the same shares over and over again trading them between various accounts that they control.
They can sell and buy the same shares multiple times during a trading day to create direction of the PPS whether they want it to go down or up without actually owning very many shares.
If you are a retail investor, it is difficult to do the same to control the price because of transaction fees and margin deposits.
There is absolutely no doubt that several MM;s are controlling the price of MINE through manipulation of ask prices and bid prices.
If you monitor L2 on a continual basis, you can watch them walk the price down by selling at the bid or below and then lowering the ask immediately. They then sell again at the bid or below and lower the ask price again. I have watched many, many times, but I don't know how to stop it.
I believe much of this is managed by computer assistance with triggers input by the MM's. They monitor the trading activity constantly on MINE and many other volatile stocks and when they see an opportunity to profit from a movement in price, they orchestrate that price.
It is illegal to manipulate stock prices in this way, but FINRA and the SEC seem oblivious to the practice except in a few of the most blatant and public cases where they enlist the help of retail shareholders through various social media and stock message boards.
AI
