If online investing is wired, manipulating markets online is plugged-in to the point of nonconsensual sodomy. Perversely, there's something intensely gratifying in seeing it emerge as a serious issue, replete with SEC investigations, bounty hunts, and special news features. The gist? People are taking money and making money. Self-interest - often conflicted, often unstated - abounds. It's just like real life!
For a while, it seemed that all those stock tickers were just proofs-of-concept, a convenient way to demonstrate streaming information. But now that online trading is gaining steam, and Motley Fool has top-level billing on Yahoo and The New York Times nonfiction bestseller list, the stimulating effect seems to have been anything but subliminal. And as E*Trade ads show up on more small screens digital and analog alike, it'll mean more West Coast investors waking up at 3 a.m., with just enough time to hit the bulletin boards before trading begins.
As always, the shortest distance from profit-chart point A to point B is a lie. So short-sellers talk down companies, get sued, cause widespread paranoia for about 10 seconds, and then start all over again. It's the time-honored, if ignoble, tradition of yelling "flood" in burning theaters, and selling galoshes to stampeding patrons who should be buying fire extinguishers, or - at the very least - comfortable running shoes. Open, easily anonymized networks like the Web will always be good for fast-moving, potentially profitable rumors. When the whispers tell you that all rumors are true, just remember to see who's talking.
This article appeared originally in HotWired.
