BY ANDREW GIOVINAZZI
September 22nd, 2025
Back in the day, manipulating stocks was straightforward.
Take a trick known as “painting the tape.”
This first started back when stock prices were recorded on a “ticker tape.” Shifty traders would essentially create fake trades that, to everyone else, would look like increased activity on a given stock.
This would lead to more buying, pushing prices higher and letting the devious traders sell their holdings for a better price.
Nowadays, manipulation is more nuanced. Take short-selling, as an example.
While there’s nothing wrong with short-selling, sometimes it gets out of hand. All it takes is for a few bad actors to short a company to such a degree that bankruptcy looks like destiny.
But sometimes, the shorting gets way out of hand. And if you know what to look for, you’ll make a killing.
My friend Mark over at AlphaAI is doing just that. They’re closing out some huge winners. Go here to find out how to take part.
Of course, traders aren’t the only ones manipulating shares. Companies do it too.
For example, companies regularly create news that is engineered to shift prices.
Right now, we have some crazy headlines showing just that…
Nvidia Corp (Nasdaq: NVDA) is investing in a company that buys its chips.
Talk about self-serving…
NVDA is basically buying guaranteed future revenue for itself. That would make any stock jump.
Then there’s Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL). It’s up 4% on reports that the iPhone 17 is selling well.
Apple trades at 10x revenue. Meaning, you can expect shares to double… by 2035.
VIX and SPY are moving in the same direction
The NVDA and AAPL news is just what companies do nowadays. It’s a little sneaky. It’s very manipulative. But it’s completely legal.
This is the kind of stuff you’ll see on repeat when the market rallies.
And although retail investors don’t know any different, the pros know exactly what’s going on.
If you look at how the market and VIX react, you’ll know exactly what they think.
When stocks go up and traders like the rally, VIX drops.
When stocks go up and traders hate the rally, VIX goes up.
Since the FOMC meeting, we have the latter.
Below is a 10-day chart of the SPY. Below that is a 10-day chart of the VIX.
Notice the last 3 days:
10-day SPY chart
10-day VIX chart
The big April shock was due to the tariff uncertainty killing world trade. That appears to have been an overblown concern. What is not overblown is the knife-edge that we have on interest rates, U.S. government debt and the haggling in Congress over the Big Beautiful Bill.
The Animal Spirits are pushing stocks up, but the government’s fiscal situation is spooking traders since the U.S. Bond Market is so enormous. If Congress cannot pass a reasonable spending bill, we could see an ugly reversal.
That is a situation I am set up for in Weekly Profit Cycles.
To Your Trading Success,
AG