RE: read thisThanks for the post.
The problem though, in Canada at least, goes far beyond this. What worries me is the widespread manipulation of stocks high and low. My conclusion is that the brokers (yes, those who are supposed to be on the side of the investor) are up to their necks in this game. The Canadian stock market universe is clearly (for me) divided into territories and the members of the syndicate help each other out when necessary. They churn (buy and sell ) to sow confusion and I have no doubt that they exchange information on levels of buying and short selling by the public. Our brokers ( and if you think of it, there aren't that many) are in a conspiracy to screw us. When a stock is very actively manipulated, try to put a small order, two or three times, and what you'll discover is that your broker's trader will eventually slip and end up executing your transaction under a different broker number. And they are so sure of your stupidity that they proceed to move the stock against you.
That this is all illegal is beside the point. The manipulation is so blatant that it is hard to believe that the OSC is unaware of it., unless of course, they suffer from a severe case of myopia.
Much can be done to limit the extent of these yo-yo games, but,hey, who has the time and the resources to organize investors across this vast land. The best thing one can do is to play the ETFs and if one believes in a stock to invest
in it long term and forget all the short term noise. Alternatively, one can move into the U.S. markets where stock manipulation is ,I believe, not as widespread and where at least our brokers have no power to use their knowledge of our trading against us.