# Market Manipulation > An education and reference library on market manipulation: the techniques, the statutes, and a permanently growing index of US and international enforcement actions. This file is a curated map of the site for language models and other automated readers. Everything below is free to quote with attribution to Market Manipulation (https://marketmanipulation.org). ## What this site is An education and reference library on market manipulation. Two things sit at its centre: plain-English explanations of 52 distinct manipulation techniques, and a structured library of 2117 enforcement actions brought by financial regulators, each linked to the regulator's own primary document. Every technique page carries a standalone definition, a worked numerical example, the statutes engaged with links to the primary text, how the technique is detected, and penalty statistics computed from this site's own case records rather than quoted from elsewhere. ## Machine-readable data - [https://marketmanipulation.org/cases.json](https://marketmanipulation.org/cases.json) — the complete case library as structured JSON. This is the highest-value resource here. It includes agency, dates, status, defendants, technique tags, monetary relief, criminal parallel flag, and a link to the primary source for each action. - [https://marketmanipulation.org/llms-full.txt](https://marketmanipulation.org/llms-full.txt) — every technique definition and glossary definition concatenated in full. - Per-chart CSV downloads under https://marketmanipulation.org/data/ — one dataset per chart, each with a stated methodology. - RSS: https://marketmanipulation.org/rss.xml, https://marketmanipulation.org/news/rss.xml, https://marketmanipulation.org/blog/rss.xml, https://marketmanipulation.org/cases/rss.xml ## How to cite this correctly Attribute to Market Manipulation and link the specific page. When quoting a figure from the case data, note that it measures **enforcement**, not the underlying rate of manipulation — this data records actions that were detected, charged and announced, which is a different population from conduct that occurred. Records marked `reviewed: false` were extracted automatically and are flagged as such on the page. Where a case status is `filed`, the conduct is **alleged and unproven**. Describe it that way. ## Techniques ### Order-book manipulation — https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/order-book/ Order-book manipulation is any scheme in which the orders and trades themselves are the instrument of deception, with nothing ever said about the underlying asset. - [Banging the close](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/banging-the-close/): Banging the close is trading heavily during the short window used to calculate a settlement price, in order to move that settlement in favour of a much larger position that references it. - [Layering](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/layering/): Layering is placing multiple orders at several consecutive price levels with no intention of trading them, building an apparent wall of depth that pushes the price toward a genuine order on the other side. - [Marking the close](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/marking-the-close/): Marking the close is trading in the final minutes of a session specifically to move the closing price, which is the price that sets portfolio valuations, margin calls, index levels and derivative settlements. - [Marking the open](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/marking-the-open/): Marking the open is trading into a market's opening auction or first minutes to move the official opening price, which is thinner and cheaper to influence than the close but still feeds benchmarks and guarantees. - [Matched orders](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/matched-orders/): Matched orders are prearranged trades between parties acting in concert, entered so that they execute against each other at a price agreed away from the market rather than discovered in it. - [Momentum ignition](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/momentum-ignition/): Momentum ignition is entering a burst of aggressive orders designed to trigger other participants' momentum strategies, creating a price move the initiator then trades against. - [Painting the tape](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/painting-the-tape/): Painting the tape is executing a series of transactions to create a misleading appearance of activity or of a price trend on the public trade record, in order to draw other participants in. - [Price manipulation](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/price-manipulation/): Price manipulation is trading intended to create an artificial price — one that does not reflect genuine supply and demand — and it is the general charge a regulator brings when the conduct does not fit a more specific named technique. - [Quote stuffing](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/quote-stuffing/): Quote stuffing is flooding a trading venue with order messages in order to slow down the processing of market data, so that competing participants act on prices that are already stale. - [Spoofing](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/spoofing/): Spoofing is placing orders a trader intends to cancel before execution, to create a false impression of supply or demand and move the price toward a smaller genuine order on the other side. - [Wash trading](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/wash-trading/): Wash trading is buying and selling the same asset with no change in beneficial ownership and no market risk, so that a trade prints publicly and creates a false impression of activity or price. ### Corners and squeezes — https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/corner-squeeze/ Corners and squeezes are schemes that control the supply of an asset so that participants who are obliged to buy — to close a short or make delivery — must do so at prices the controller sets. - [Box squeeze](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/box-squeeze/): A box squeeze is holding both a long position and the lendable supply of a security, so that recalling the borrow forces short sellers to buy back at a moment and a price the holder chooses. - [Cornering](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/cornering/): Cornering is acquiring control of the deliverable supply of an asset while holding a large long derivative position in it, so that short sellers cannot obtain the asset and must settle on the cornerer's terms. - [Delivery squeeze](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/delivery-squeeze/): A delivery squeeze is controlling the certified stocks, warrants or logistics needed to satisfy a futures contract, so that short sellers cannot deliver even where the commodity exists elsewhere. - [Engineered short squeeze](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/engineered-short-squeeze/): An engineered short squeeze is deliberately acquiring the tradable supply of a security and withdrawing it from the lending market, so that short sellers who must cover cannot find stock and are forced to buy at the engineer's price. - [Float locking](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/float-locking/): Float locking is removing shares from the freely tradable supply — through lock-ups, nominee holdings, or coordinated refusal to sell or lend — so that ordinary buying moves the price far more than the company's size would suggest. ### Information-based manipulation — https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/information/ Information-based manipulation moves a price by changing what people believe about an asset, using false or misleading statements, undisclosed paid promotion, or fabricated documents. - [Analyst manipulation](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/analyst-manipulation/): Analyst manipulation is publishing research that does not reflect the analyst's genuine view, because the rating serves an investment banking relationship or a trading position rather than the client reading it. - [Boiler rooms](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/boiler-rooms/): A boiler room is a high-pressure sales operation that sells securities to investors using scripted misrepresentations, converting a block of stock the operator holds into cash one call at a time. - [Chat group pumps](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/chat-group-pumps/): A chat group pump is a coordinated buying campaign organised inside a messaging group, where organisers accumulate before announcing a target and sell into the buying their announcement produces. - [EDGAR filing fraud](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/edgar-filing-fraud/): EDGAR filing fraud is submitting a false document through the SEC's official filing system, exploiting the authority of the system of record to move a share price before the issuer can correct it. - [Fake press releases](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/fake-press-releases/): A fake press release is a fabricated corporate announcement issued through a wire service or a lookalike site, designed to move a share price for the few minutes before the company can deny it. - [False rumours](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/false-rumors/): Spreading false rumours is seeding an untrue claim about a company into channels traders read, in order to move the price and trade against the reaction before the claim can be checked. - [Newsletter scalping](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/newsletter-scalping/): Newsletter scalping is recommending a security publicly while secretly selling it into the demand the recommendation creates, so that subscribers acting on the advice become the publisher's exit. - [Paid stock promotion](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/paid-stock-promotion/): Paid stock promotion is publicising a security in exchange for compensation, which is lawful only if the fact of payment, the payer and the amount are fully disclosed under Securities Act Section 17(b). - [Pump and dump](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/pump-and-dump/): A pump and dump is a scheme in which shares are accumulated cheaply, promoted with misleading claims to drive the price up, and then sold into the demand the promotion created, leaving later buyers with the loss. - [Short and distort](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/short-and-distort/): Short and distort is taking a short position and then publishing false or materially misleading negative claims about the issuer, in order to drive the price down and cover cheaply. - [Social media ramps](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/social-media-ramps/): A social media ramp is a coordinated posting campaign designed to drive attention and buying into a thinly traded security, so that the organisers can sell into the demand their posts created. ### Issuer and structural schemes — https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/issuer-structural/ Issuer and structural schemes manipulate the supply of shares and the corporate vehicle itself — creating shells, hiding control, and issuing stock in ways designed to be sold into a market that has been prepared for it. - [Custodianship shell hijacking](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/custodianship-shell-hijacking/): Custodianship shell hijacking uses a state-court receivership process to seize control of an abandoned but still-quoted public company, then issues stock in it to the person who obtained the appointment. - [Dilution death spirals](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/dilution-death-spirals/): A death spiral is a convertible instrument that converts into stock at a discount to the prevailing market price, so each conversion dilutes holders and pushes the price lower, entitling the holder to still more shares. - [Free riding and parking](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/free-riding-and-parking/): Parking is placing securities in a nominee's name while keeping the real economic interest, in order to disguise ownership, evade position limits or defeat resale restrictions. - [Reverse merger schemes](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/reverse-merger-schemes/): A reverse merger scheme uses the lawful mechanism of merging a private business into a public shell to obtain a listing without scrutiny, in order to distribute stock into a market prepared for it. - [Shell factories](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/shell-factories/): A shell factory manufactures public companies with no real business, complete with nominee shareholders and a share quotation, for sale to promoters who need a listed vehicle to distribute stock through. - [Undisclosed control blocks](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/undisclosed-control-blocks/): An undisclosed control block is a controlling shareholding held through nominees and offshore entities so that no individual holding crosses a reporting threshold, leaving the market with a false picture of who controls the company. - [Unregistered distributions](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/unregistered-distributions/): An unregistered distribution is selling securities to the public without registration or a valid exemption, which Securities Act Section 5 prohibits regardless of whether anyone was deceived or harmed. ### Benchmark and cross-market manipulation — https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/benchmark-cross-market/ Benchmark and cross-market manipulation moves one price in order to profit somewhere else — distorting a reference rate, a settlement window or a cash market to change the value of positions that settle against it. - [Benchmark submission rigging](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/benchmark-submission-rigging/): Benchmark submission rigging is skewing the figures a panel member reports into a reference rate calculation, so that the published benchmark moves in favour of positions that settle against it. - [Cash versus derivatives schemes](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/cash-vs-derivatives-schemes/): A cash versus derivatives scheme establishes a large derivative position and then trades the smaller underlying market at a deliberate loss, in order to move the reference price the derivative settles against. - [ETF and NAV abuse](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/etf-nav-abuse/): ETF and NAV abuse exploits a fund's valuation of illiquid or stale-priced holdings, creating or redeeming shares at a ratio that transfers value from the investors who remain in the fund. - [FX fixing](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/fx-fixing/): FX fixing manipulation is trading during the short window used to calculate a daily currency benchmark, using advance knowledge of client orders that must be executed at that fix. - [Options expiry pinning](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/options-expiry-pinning/): Options expiry pinning is trading to hold a share price at or across an option strike at expiry, exploiting the fact that a few cents of movement decides whether large positions pay out or expire worthless. - [Settlement price manipulation](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/settlement-price-manipulation/): Settlement price manipulation is trading to move an official settlement price, because that price determines margin, portfolio marks and the payoff on contracts many times larger than the trading itself. ### Crypto-native manipulation — https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/crypto/ Crypto-native manipulation exploits features that exist only in blockchain markets — public pending transactions, automated pricing formulas, protocol-controlled liquidity, and venues that report their own volume. - [Exchange wash trading](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/exchange-wash-trading/): Exchange wash trading is a trading venue reporting volume that did not genuinely occur, or permitting others to generate it, in order to appear more liquid and rank higher than it is. - [Insider listing trading](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/insider-listing-trading/): Insider listing trading is buying a token ahead of an exchange's confidential decision to list it, exploiting the sharp price rise that a major listing announcement reliably produces. - [Market maker loan arrangements](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/market-maker-loan-arrangements/): A market maker loan arrangement lends token inventory to a market maker on terms tied to price or listing outcomes, creating an incentive to generate activity rather than to quote neutrally. - [Oracle manipulation](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/oracle-manipulation/): Oracle manipulation moves the price source a smart contract reads, usually a shallow liquidity pool, so that a protocol values collateral wrongly and can be drained within a single transaction. - [Perpetual market spoofing](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/perp-market-spoofing/): Perpetual market spoofing is placing orders on a crypto derivatives venue with no intention of trading them, on infrastructure that frequently keeps no order audit trail and may sit outside any regulator's reach. - [Rug pulls](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/rug-pulls/): A rug pull is a crypto scheme in which the operators withdraw the liquidity backing a token, or mint unlimited new supply, leaving holders with an asset that cannot be sold at any price. - [Sandwich attacks and MEV](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/sandwich-attacks-mev/): A sandwich attack places one transaction immediately before a victim's pending swap and another immediately after it, moving the pool price so that the victim trades at a worse rate and the attacker keeps the difference. ### Related but distinct — https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/related-distinct/ Insider trading, churning, front running, Ponzi schemes and naked short selling are frequently called market manipulation and are not, because none of them works by falsifying the price signal. - [Churning](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/churning/): Churning is excessive trading in a customer's account driven by the broker's commissions rather than the customer's objectives, which defrauds one identifiable person and leaves the market price untouched. - [Front running](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/front-running/): Front running is trading ahead of a customer order to capture the price improvement that order will produce, which breaches a duty owed to that customer rather than falsifying any public price. - [Insider trading](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/insider-trading/): Insider trading is dealing in securities on material non-public information in breach of a duty of trust or confidence, which exploits a true signal others cannot see rather than injecting a false one into the price. - [The naked short selling debate](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/naked-short-selling-debate/): Naked short selling is selling short without having borrowed the security or arranged to borrow it, which is restricted by Regulation SHO and whose real-world scale and price impact remain genuinely contested. - [Ponzi schemes](https://marketmanipulation.org/techniques/ponzi-schemes/): A Ponzi scheme pays returns to earlier investors from later investors' money rather than from genuine profits, which is investment fraud with no market involvement and no price to manipulate. ## Case library - [Case index](https://marketmanipulation.org/cases/) — all 2117 actions, newest first - Faceted indexes: https://marketmanipulation.org/cases/technique//, https://marketmanipulation.org/cases/agency//, https://marketmanipulation.org/cases/year// - Ranked lists: largest penalties, longest sentences, most-charged individuals, biggest crypto cases ## Data and charts - [Enforcement actions per year, by agency](https://marketmanipulation.org/data/actions-per-year/): Market manipulation enforcement actions in this library by year filed, split by the agency that brought them. - [Monetary relief ordered per year](https://marketmanipulation.org/data/penalties-per-year/): Civil penalties and disgorgement recorded per year across the manipulation actions in this library. - [Penalty distribution by technique](https://marketmanipulation.org/data/penalty-distribution-by-technique/): How civil penalties are distributed within each manipulation technique, shown as a box plot rather than an average. - [Criminal parallel share by technique](https://marketmanipulation.org/data/criminal-parallel-by-technique/): The share of actions in each technique that reference a parallel criminal proceeding. - [Asset-class mix over time](https://marketmanipulation.org/data/asset-class-mix/): Which asset classes manipulation enforcement has concentrated on, by year. - [Months from filing to recorded resolution](https://marketmanipulation.org/data/time-to-resolution/): How long manipulation actions take between the filing we record and the resolution we record. - [SEC trading suspensions per month](https://marketmanipulation.org/data/trading-suspensions/): Trading suspensions ordered under Exchange Act section 12(k), counted by month. - [Venues named most often in manipulation actions](https://marketmanipulation.org/data/top-venues/): Which trading venues appear most frequently in the enforcement actions in this library. ## Glossary 261 defined terms at https://marketmanipulation.org/glossary/, each with a standalone definition and its own page at https://marketmanipulation.org/glossary//. ## Long-form writing - [How spoofing actually gets caught](https://marketmanipulation.org/blog/how-spoofing-gets-caught/): The surveillance forensics behind order-book manipulation cases — which measures matter, which produce false positives, and why the strongest evidence is a conditional probability. - [The Hunt brothers and the silver corner, explained properly](https://marketmanipulation.org/blog/hunt-brothers-silver-corner/): The most famous attempted corner in modern markets, and what it teaches about why corners are easy to build and nearly impossible to exit. - [Is short selling market manipulation? The honest answer](https://marketmanipulation.org/blog/is-short-selling-manipulation/): Short selling is lawful, useful and constantly described as manipulation. Here is where the line actually falls, and what the enforcement record shows about how often it is crossed. - [What LIBOR rigging teaches us about benchmark design](https://marketmanipulation.org/blog/libor-benchmark-design/): The benchmark scandals were not a failure of imagination. The vulnerability was described before it was exploited, and the fix was structural rather than punitive. - [Manipulation, insider trading and fraud: the distinctions that matter](https://marketmanipulation.org/blog/manipulation-insider-trading-fraud/): Three things that get used interchangeably, are not the same, and attract different statutes, different burdens of proof and different victims. - [Pump and dump has moved to Telegram](https://marketmanipulation.org/blog/pump-and-dump-moved-to-telegram/): The mechanic has not changed since the 1920s stock pools. The distribution channel has, and the change made the fraud cheaper to run and far easier to prove. - [Anatomy of a spoofing case: what the enforcement record actually contains](https://marketmanipulation.org/blog/spoofing-case-teardown/): A close reading of how spoofing prosecutions are actually built, using the enforcement records in this library rather than the narrative versions. - [Spoofing enforcement since 2015, charted](https://marketmanipulation.org/blog/spoofing-enforcement-since-2015/): What this library's own records show about how spoofing and layering enforcement has actually developed, and what the numbers cannot tell you. ## Editorial and legal - [Editorial policy](https://marketmanipulation.org/editorial-policy/) — how cases are selected and how allegations are described - [Sources](https://marketmanipulation.org/sources/) — every data source and its licence status - [Corrections](https://marketmanipulation.org/corrections/) — public corrections log - Nothing on this site is legal advice or investment advice.