Well I think it could actually be possible to cause panic or a feeling of uneasiness in people. I, myself, feel pretty uneasy when I read about long-term members raising scepticism. I haven't acted on this in ages, but I think it is possible to cause a panic. I remain sceptical about the practical usefulness of this, though.
Fair comment, though we have to remember that some of the larger companies coming on the the scene won't be using exchanges as their preferred trough to scoop up coins, and they won't be spending a lot of time on forums such as this one like we do in order to determine where the market is going, they'll be laying the tracks for the market directly. That will be reflected in our minion serving exchanges price eventually though when word gets out.
That said, even the larger companies behaviour will pale into insignificance compared to a viral take off by mainstream using those services as their conduit. The connector companies between the two isn't really in place yet though to roll out their wares to mainstream, so we need patience while the laggards catch up with the visionaries and early adopters (I'd still call todays people early adopters), which looks like at least a few years to me (next month marks my 5th year of watching this market, though it doesn't feel like that long).
We've come a long way, but you can see in the threads that a lot of us are resigned to the fact that we're not going to be having moon parties every couple of months if it is to be a credible technology.
Yeah that's what I'm thinking, as well. I think you
indeed cause a panic selling of some sort, but the volume and magnitude will be insignificant. People who can be 'tricked' into selling most likely don't have that many coins. You could put up a bid-wall, though and try to cause as many people as possible into selling into that wall of yours.