What fresh hell... after Occupy, several disillusioned activists got into penny stocks and realized that by coordinating in a a Facebook group they could make a decent amount of money if they worked in collaboration and quickly. This tactic is called swarming

I thought it was *ironic* that they learned enough about Wall St from the movement to make it work for them, the Facebook group was a hive of excited discussion.

Anyhow, since then I’ve followed the work of @lanalana because she understands money in ways I never could grasp.

Market manipulation is not new, however, it does seem that using a message board to coordinate the takedown of short sellers, is a kind of media manipulation as activist practice, especially as coordinated action produces real-time instant feedback on your successes.

Some of the same reasons why we see groups game social media algorithms to engineer engagement seems to be what’s animating hacking the stock market.