Of course not.
As a casual observer of any political campaign ad will see, it is more effective to scare people into action than it is to entice them. Shorts and those wanting to buy at a lower price employ scare tactics to influence shareholder behavior.
Attempting to manipulate buying is more difficult. Sure you can paint a rosy picture of the future, after all that is what most ads on TV do, but most investors have already done their research and have a pretty good idea what they bought and why they did. Enticing them to buy more runs up against some real resistance in terms of dry powder, portfolio allocation limits, and other competing investment opportunities.
I suggest that the total effect on the share price of "pumping" is minimal and thinking that a single poster or even several have any effect on the share price is quite a reach.
Compare the relentless drum beat of the multiple negative posters vs the few hard core positive posters and the numbers of posts are heavily skewed toward the negative. But then it is much easier to make money on the short side in the absence of significant progress. Once that significant progress happens, being on the short side will be a bit more challenging. Of course 20,000,000 share short position with a value of $100,000,000 or more has no real competition on the long side so far, although the tutes seem to be increasing their positions. Remember that the vast majority of the shares held by the tutes are in index funds and are not actively protected as are the short positions.
We await significant progress to see how this will play out.
I have my tickets to the show and will have popcorn at the ready when the show starts.
