Assuming you aren’t joking (I’m really tired so I might have missed it) but the joke in the trading community (I’m not a trader) is that there is a concerted effort to ramp the markets at 3:30 pm. Go back and look at some charts and watch the gains the last half hour of trading. Pretty uncanny.
It's some sort of manipulation of the market. Wish I'd been quick enough to ride some stocks up with them. You could set a lot of limit buys of lots of different stocks in a situation like that. And most would have triggered.
It would be nice to know who drove it up. A few like me looking for breaks, institutional buyers. Institutional buyers must have set stops or something. It doesn't make sense to sell at a loss then have things turn around so fast. It was probably shorts driving it down. I haven't played any yet. Color me stupid lol.
The market is 'manipulated' by individual buyers and sellers just like a writer 'manipulates' his computer keyboard when he's posting copy. What's happening w/ the trade surge at closing is the distortion caused by institutional managers who are required by law to enter trades as of the market's price close for the day.