forget about manipulation man… which of course goes on. why do the options of certain securities start seeing huge volumes shortly before some sort of a merger announcement comes out?
the thing that gets to me is the huge number of fees you and I pay to these banks. they have a hand in my pocket all the time. if I go buy a mutual fund share, I pay the mutual fund a management fee which is ridiculously high as it is. if the fund makes 10% and I’m paying 1% (which is a cheap fund) to the manager, I’ve given away 10% of my money to the guy. that fund manager goes and buys/sells some shares. he charges me for the commission that he pays to the big broker/dealer. but the kick in the pants is that not only is the fund manager paying the guy an explicit commission of 2-3 cents per share (which is ridiculously high) but if he wants to buy an interlisted security, chances are that the broker/dealer is making money off the exchange rate too. the dealer is making money off EVERYTHING. and that money goes to pay these ridiculously padded and undeserved bonuses.
and all this comes out of the investing public’s pocket - directly or indirectly.