Steve, I only hope that your securities lawyers are aware of this possibility.
If a market maker who is short a ton of shares can stop people from buying shares but does allow them to sell all day. Will that help that market maker who is short and would love to cover as cheap as possible after they lift their own Chill which has no legal merit?
Answer: Yes. If true, TDA (my broker, no complaints) should be fried along with any of their collusive friends. The above is in direct violation of bona-fide market making.
SEC/FINRA: Bona-fide market making does not include activity that is related to speculative selling strategies or investment purposes of the broker-dealer or that is disproportionate to the usual market making patterns or practices of the broker-dealer in that security.
However, MM's and block shorts routinely ignore that mandate.
Drum roll, FINRA now has an interesting tool (avail to you and your lawyers also?) a/o Feb 28, 2011: FINRA's Order Audit Trail System (OATS).
The objective is surveillance, requiring broker-dealers to submit order and trade data, which provide a "cradle-to-grave" audit trail for orders.
So, as I understand it, FINRA now has a tool to present a picture of both obvious and not-so-obvious manipulation, and the SOURCE of the manipulation.
