No problem, Shady - HC seems to have that effect! :) I lean...

No problem, Shady - HC seems to have that effect!

I lean towards your explanation but your mate's definition is ok too. I just doubt that most P&Ds are nearly as coordinated and elaborate as some think. Most of the time I suspect specs work like this: A group of fairly excitable and fairly small traders start buying/posting on a stock. Other traders of the same ilk also become excited and start buying. This all continues, until, a) the profit-taking from those set lower > new, excited traders; b) news is released that acts as a ST liquidity event and "sell the fact" kicks-in. There's also a c) where a highly ramped stock goes on with it and is the real deal but as we know, not so common.

So, I'd guess that 95% of spec activity (P&D included) is just group psychology playing-out but sometimes, there's perhaps more at play and when you've been around HC long enough, you can kind of get a good handle on what's coordinated posting, who talks to who offline, who deals with which brokers etc.