people were gabbling on the wall observer that the recent price runup to 290 was a pump to make more money off the auction.  This "analysis" seemed ill considered to me because government functionaries aren't going to be getting a bonus based on the auction price and therefore have no incentive (unlike wall st) to pull these tricks.  It seems more likely to me that the pull back right before the bidding opened was the artificial move... or even more likely it was a natural pullback that was amplified.  An entity who engineered an artificial pullback would use this knowledge to keep its bid high while others might bid at current market.  Obviously if this is true it is bullish... entirely speculation, but I'm interested in your thoughts...