[Johannis Bazen]

I was genuinely surprised when I came across this post. Admittedly, so-called “investment scams” are indeed prevalent across various social media platforms. However, the author’s remarks regarding institutions or market makers “pushing up prices, accumulating positions, and then offloading them” reveal a rather shallow understanding of how financial markets operate — it comes across very much like the view of a novice

With over thirty years of experience in the stock market, I can say with confidence that a true “pump-and-dump” strategy is anything but simple. It’s a carefully orchestrated, multi-stage process

Phase 1: Price Suppression & Accumulation

The first phase is price suppression and accumulation. Institutions typically induce market fear by releasing negative sentiment, publishing discouraging news, or spreading bearish narratives. This pushes prices down, prompting retail investors to sell, allowing institutions to quietly accumulate at lower levels

However, this accumulation doesn’t happen overnight — it often requires significant time to rotate shares and complete positioning. Even after successful accumulation, institutions cannot simply unload large positions for a profit without first entering the second phase: the mark-up

Phase 2: Mark-up (Price Elevation)

This phase depends heavily on sustained capital inflow. By creating optimism — through news, signals, or technical momentum — they encourage retail traders to chase the rise. This price increase is not random; it’s measured and rhythmic, often taking the shape of an S-curve or extended consolidation on the charts.

Phase 3: Distribution (Exit)

Eventually comes the final stage: distribution. At this point, institutions often engineer false breakouts or bullish patterns, such as large bullish candles with low volume, designed to lure in late buyers — a classic bull trap

Contrary to popular belief, institutions rarely dump all at once. Doing so would collapse the price and destroy their profit. Instead, they offload gradually, in small batches, minimising market disruption while offloading risk

And here lies the central question:
Can such a large-scale manipulation truly be pulled off by a handful of people with limited capital?

Unless one is dealing with unregulated or fraudulent stocks — or operating on an off-market platform — this would be extremely difficult to execute in a highly regulated, liquid market like NASDAQ
Even in mid-sized markets, completing such a full cycle of accumulation, elevation, and exit would typically require coordination between multiple institutions and market makers, not just a single actor

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