"Sure there might be a little bit of manipulation. But nothing nefarious. It's allowed. If I had enough money to hit the bid and ask large to try and make it look a certain way for my own gain... I would. That's the way it works. "

Its not as easy as you say, you cannot just hit the bid and ask. If you try, your institution will phone and tell you to cease that kind of trading or they will suspend your trading privileges. If you trade out of more than one institution, you have to sign and declare all the institutions you trade out of. So you see my friend, retail is out in the open so they can watch the little guy to ensure he is playing by the rules that they make for us. Now to successfully manipulate you would need a group of nefarious individuals who collaborate privately to plan a strategy of stock manipulation, each with their own trading account. Fast software programs do not hurt!!!! So the fact is those nefarious individuals would be committing a conspiracy, which is a criminal offence.

This is all just my humble opinion ,paliman