Rather improbable, but in practice, I suppose anything is possible. Can you point to an example with an ASX company where this has ever happened? Maybe it has...
If there are lots of ways to pay MS to short a stock and manipulate its price, can you elaborate with one of them? It seems like a guaranteed way to make money. I know that if I'm a PB client, I can get them to short some stock for me, but then I'm the one with the unhedged short position. It seems as though you have something else in mind where I pay some money to MS and ask them to short the stock and bear (no pun) the risk themselves?
GXY Price at posting:
$1.85 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held