05.24.2011 Original publish date
02.13.2016 Broken stock chart links, unable to repair (removed), page format update, article archived under Financial News Editorial
Is Apple’s Share Price Being Manipulated? Don’t Think So.
original article written by Net Advisor™
EDITORIAL: On May 12, 2011, I came across an article titled, “Is Apple’s share price being manipulated?” (PDF) written by Philip Elmer-DeWitt and published on CNN Money. The article discussed whether Apple, Inc. (NYSE: AAPL) stock was being price manipulated in the market.
I posted a comment on the same day, but for whatever reason the comment which challenges the theory that Apple’s stock was somehow being manipulated was not published. To date 42 other comments were published. So we are publishing our reply here in its entirety as submitted to CNN Money:
“I took at look at this and it’s an interesting theory, but I would have to argue that the likelihood that anyone could manipulate the trading of a company the size of AAPL would be financially not possible. AAPL has a current market cap of $320 Billion. At roughly $350 with average trading volume of 16 million shares translates to $88.5 Billion worth of Apple shares traded a day. Who has the cash to influence that stock price?
The week of, including options expiration, stocks will have greater volatility due to the execution of options.
I would agree that at times stocks (no specific ones) can move to their closest strike price near expiration. I would argue this is the buying and selling by the market place, not by some rogue stock manipulators.
Traders are trying to gauge where a stock will be on expiration and collectively will try to hit a mark. These traders are the general market, and I would hardly be able to support some collusion argument given the level of trading volume in such large cap shares.
If someone came to the market with $20 Billion to buy or sell a single stock, including the exercising of options, it would get noticed and the stock would move sharply followed by mass media coverage and a regulator look-see. Trades these sizes don’t get executed like a single buy or sell because the person coming to the table with that kind of money would get screwed on price. They would pay too much to buy and get too less if they sold. Don’t see where manipulation comes in.
Where there is a ton of stock manipulation: Go check out any penny stock. Is anyone else discussing that?”
About Penny Stock Risk
2 Cents on 50 Cent’s Twitter Stock Hype
All I ask of media is if an article has an opposing view publish it, and allow the reader to decide. Anyone is welcome to submit their views on any article we publish. We don’t censor but to curb inappropriate language and spam.
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