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.
PIGGY is now 33 on Poloniex. So it hasn't gone back to 18 and, in that sense, has almost doubled in value. I will assume that many people who bought at higher rates are hoping the price rises. There are a bunch of sell orders around 50+.