i'm not unaware of the games you pose and the very fact these are your 1st 2 posts on hangout

not necessarily correct- only if the demand exceed/swamped the mm/broker /shorter etc games

as long as stock trades there are buyers but trade prices are manipulated irrespective of the bid and ask,which can themselves be manipulated in many ways,hidden,altered, falsified etc

often times i've had highest bid on a stock only to see such bid regularly bypassed for much much much lower prices for months on end

an example -a stock in the 2-3 c range repeatedly had huge trades go thru at .0001 etc even though numerous 2c plus bids were regularly bypassed, which would spook the stock only to rebound .

i stopped calling brokers for a reason because they either take stupid pills or are covering for brokers who are shorting our stocks

once brokers and others were given a never before seen unconstitutional greenlight to attack these pennies w immunity unprecedented fraud followed-ripe for huge class actions etc -
the extreme market frauds we've seen last few years cannot continue in a democratic society -either the rule of law will again prevail or we will become a dictatorship

i've had brokers repeatedly tell me its impossible to buy at the bid because the spread belongs to the mm
thats why its important for companies to escape the radar of these players by upgrading to current info classification-not because of financials-which are irrelevant at this stage- but because co's below current info are targeted for these non-stop games