Is Ameritrade purposefully manipulating the stock market?

Question

I trade via Scottrade & a friend of mine trades through Ameritrade. Pegasus wireless recently bombed to an all time low. At one point this stock was almost 19 dollars and now it is trading around a $1.25. This happened in a relatively short period of time. I thought wow what a deal and bought over 4000 shares of the stock thinking it should at least go back to the 5 buck mark it hovered at for some time before plunging to this new low. My friend has Ameritrade and has tried several times to purchase the stock but they would not let him do so nor talk to the people that made this decision. He has more than sufficient funds and the stock is not on any foriegn exchange. In fact it trades on the NASDQ. It seems likely to me that maybe some price manipulation is going on. If one of the biggest online brokers will not let you by the stock so that there are more sellers than buyer it is an obvious conclusion that the stock price will go down. I don't know but something fishy is going on here.

dredude52, as a matter of policy they will not let anyone buy this stock. He has tried via sign online to his account and he has called several times. Ameritrade representatives told him that another person in the company had made this decision and he or they did not have access to talk to such a person. It is not a wild accusation, but when you can't even buy a stock on the NASDAQ it kind of makes you wonder especially with how the stock has acted in an extreme manner of late. I do believe there are conspiracies out there to make large sums of money. Maybe I'm right about this one, and maybe I'm wrong but it would be foolish of us to never question.

dredude52, it is not pegasus that is not willing to sell their stock as I have been able to purchase it via scottrade. It is Ameritrade that will not let my friend buy this stock in the most normal of fashions. This is not about short selling or anything like that. He has a significant amount of money in his account, so it cannot be that either. They simply just will not let their clients buy this stock. Don't you think this is a bit strange?

I appreciate your level headed response. You are right that I have not presented all the facts as I do not have them all. But at the same time something seems off. You do not need to know everything to know something. I know this that I am able to trade this stock via another internet company and my friend is not. My friend actually has a larger account than mine so severely doubt lack of funds to be the reason. I know that my friend is not doing short selling or any of those potentially questionable activities. I know that he tried via the internet several times to buy this stock as well as calling multiple times. I know that he was told that another person or group of persons made the decision not to allow him to buy the stock. I am not 100% sure if it is just him or everyone but I got the impression this was a wide spread tactic of the company for whatever reason. Maybe they are afraid that he will lose all his money and are simply playing the role of big brother.

Or maybe they have another less virtuous agenda. I sincerely hope not but one of the reasons I asked the question is to find out more. I appreciate you being the Scully in this scenario but I'd also like to know if it is also a possibility.

Answer 1

There is not enough information presented here to tell what is going on.

You are making a wild accusation based on hearsay.

A friend has tried to buy stock and they won't let him. For what reason? "He says" isn't good enough. He is not giving you the whole story. "He tried" doesn't really mean anything. "Tried what," and "how" did he "try." What exactly were the methods he "tried" and the resulting responses or messages. Did he actually hit the "Buy" button or not? What happened.

Is there a Bid/Ask spread displayed or not? If so, why could he not buy? If not, the stock has been delisted. There can be temporary trading halts due to imbalances, but these are regulated formal and watched methods by the exchange.

No company can choose simply not to sell their stock and remain listed. No company can "manipulate" their stock. The exchange controls whether the stock is traded or not.

Remove the "story" from your question and insert some facts and maybe someone can help you;

Answer 2

The markets are manipulated by public perception. The press controls public perception by reporting stories when and how they choose. When the press is cooperating with government then the government has influence in manipulating the markets. Sometimes the truth is kept quiet, sometimes fake stories are put out to create a reaction and then quietly retracted.