The other issue is how do people profit from such speculation. I can only imagine they are constantly viewing the trollbox and making very quick decisions to invest. But this would surely necessitate being glued to the trollbox. Yes?
I think so. I noticed the spike about 3-4 hours after it happened. IIRC the volume was pretty massive. It's been a couple hundred BTC the past few days, more than the market cap of PIGGY itself. But since only a fraction of PIGGY is sitting on Poloniex that implies pretty fast trading, with people buying and then selling again within hours or less.
I played a little at that back in 2014, I guess for some people it's fun. But I found it stressful and not worth the modest profits (if any) involved.