The trading police don't seem to mind people buying when they...

The trading police don't seem to mind people buying when they are on a mission to sell. You see it all the time in the details of the trades in "Change in Substantial Holding" notices.

Whoever made that trade last night broke the (unpublished) three step rule and might get a slap and end up on the offenders list if its noticed by the wallopers.

Life's a learning curve. It seems brokers are responsible for ensuring that their clients don't engage in price manipulation. The other unpublished rule they use to monitor that behaviour, is banning the practice of having buy and sell orders up at the same time because of the possibility of trading with yourself.

On an online broking house you can get away with kicking the price up more than 3 steps or 10% without others participating and having buy and sell orders up at the same time, until its noticed.


Once its noticed you are put on an offenders list and all your trades are vetted for compliance with the brokers operations manual rules before they are placed on the market.