Borrowed this from another thread - fingers crossed this is the...

Borrowed this from another thread - fingers crossed this is the explanation as the alternative is a bit sickening...

"THE MOST COMMON FORM OF PRICE MANIPULATION !
If a company has some very good news to announce and manipulators want to buy more stock at good prices, they will be artificially forcing the price down, larger than necessary falls right on the close and big falls on small volume as sellers inexplicably fail to haggle or stand their ground.
This is particularly cruel to inexperienced market players, who fail to notice the warning signs and panic out of the stock, only to see it suddenly shoot up after spiralling downward. This practice has been referred to as 'shaking out the Woodies', a comparison of gullible investors to wood-ducks, which are notable for the ease with which they can be lined up and shot."