Hi Lee,

Yeah, the poll on 'trust in politicians/Washington' came in at 22% lol ;)

Whatever a person may take from these polls, one thing is certain...sentiment is currently in the toilet for the whole 'system', whether financial or political, and, for the most part these days, people view them as one and the same!

I read your question on market manipulation earlier and was going to share some thoughts. Might as well throw them in here. First, 'manipulation' has always been a fact of life in the financial system, no matter what market one cares to observe. It is part and parcel of the greed/fear mix that has driven trading from its infancy. Second, the smaller a market, the more prone it will be to manipulation, and the more successful such campaigns will be. Third, manipulation is more effective the shorter the time frame...as the timeframe expands, the ability to manipulate markets counter to their inherant value becomes increasingly more difficult. Fourth, 'manipulations' or campaigns are most effective when they attempt to move a market/security in the direction of its inherant value. Finally, 'manipulative' campaigns that attempt to move a market/security counter to its inherant value eventually fail and end up with a move of equal or greater power opposite to the manipulation once the market recognises/discounts it.

Just some rambling thoughts after a couple of decades of steady market observation :)