Paint the Tape Painting the tape is the illegal practice of making a sale for the explicit purpose of changing the stock price. A fund manager might, for example, buy 100 shares of a stock at an unusually high price right before the market closes at the end of the month. Then he can report that his entire long position in that stock is worth that price. Brokers have even more control over the tape. If they have two orders they can buy the stock from one customer at one price then immediately sell it to another customer at a different price.