If you can imagine a crime, rest assured, it is being committed on Wall Street. Here is a good one.
Phone rings:
Robot Rep: Hello, Robot trade execution service.
Customer: Hello, I need to sell 100,000 shares of xyz
Robot Rep: Great, xyz is trading at 20 ½. We can sell it for that, or we can do a little better with our premium execution service.
Customer: What is the premium execution service?
Robot Rep: We can guarantee a price of 20 ½ but we think we can run the price up to around 23 ½ by tripping stops and making folks think an uptrend is starting. We will split the difference of $3.00 per share with you.
Customer: Lets go with the premium execution service.
Robot Rep: Sounds good, we will get right on it.