First off, stock price manipulation is the illegal and intentional deception used to artificially inflate or deflate the price of a security. Perpetrators aim to mislead the market to make personal profits at the expense of other investors.
Now that we have stated that, how easy is it to manipulate stocks? Remember it was not that long ago, that several stocks were manipulated, AMC and GameStop come quickly to mind.
Possibly even eBay with the GameStop overtures.
One thing to attempt to keep in mind when investing.
- Do stock prices truly reflect the value of the company?
- What about its viability of the company?
I offer the examples of:
- GameStop
- AMC
- Tesla
- SpaceX
If any of these companies sold off assets and paid liabilities, what would remain to payoff shareholders. Does it come anywhere near the trading price?
I think stock manipulation is happening constantly.