"Consider the incentive for their actions and consequences to the happless retailer. That is what gets my gall."

Yep, that's it!

"I see a dinosaurs snout forming on the belly of an iguana. The downward floating feather shape means that we should all get the heck out before this thing plummets to the basement"

So all manner of traders dump the stock and bring the sp down... exactly as Joe Guru wanted so he could buy. It's not that it doesn't have it's uses. You just have to be worried about the uses it's put to and hope that, if your the little fish, you're swimming just behind the shark..... not in front of it.