Interesting indeed, Nic.
On a completely unrelated note, I can remember articles I have read about in the past where shorts would post negative things about a stock on message boards to drive down the price of a stock. Later, pumpers would work to post messages and rumours to run the price up, allowing the shorts to pocket profits. Embedded amongst the other posters were "confederates" that would pose as being unrelated but would chime in to provide support for the manipulating posters.
Incidentally, I'm SURE nothing like a mutation of that technique is going on here, and I would never suggest it. I don't know what even made me think of such a thing or even mention it.
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