XpresSpa Group Inc (XSPA)

[h2145h]

Thanks Red. I helped with a manipulation case of an exchange traded stock in the 60s when a 10 million share (as I now recall but may be wrong on this) total trading volume in all stocks was a normal day. To make the case every trade in the stock had to be known and analyzed. Manipulation cases are inherently tough because every trade in itself is legal. You have to find intent to affect the price and the capacity to cause the market to move in the stock being manipulated.

You nailed it. The market has gotten too big (too much volume)for the SEC to possibly do manipulation in any actively traded stock. And as you state there are too many trading entities that the SEC can't or won't get into, ie, hedge funds, Shady banks offering masked trading capacity, foreign banks and foreign investors, etc. Only recently there have been some noises from the SEC that it would start to get enough info about the markets to do get a handle on manipulation.

The SEC gets some brownie points by doing insider trader cases because that leaves tracks (communications) that can be traced.

I am struck by very visible, obvious, manipulation that occurs on option expiration days where the stocks invariably close at the price at which there are the most outstanding options, thus affording market makers in these options the most profit.