The dump surprised me a little -- although I should be used to them by now. Held, as usual, so no skin off my nose... but I do wonder as to what the dumper(s) were trying to achieve.

Volume was low as it was a long weekend, but the rest of the week looked potentially positive after the weekend's rally and with the sign of volume returning.

But all the dump is likely to do is remove the wind from the market. As we've found from the previous dumps, they no longer cause any long-term significant downward price movement following the dump.

This results in a stalemate, with bulls unwilling to buy from fear of seeing someone dump to manipulate, and bears unwilling to sell as they know the price won't go down.

So, what? Do we say hello to another 3 weeks of 0-volatility and 0-volume?

I really don't like the manipulators. They're basically crapping in their own playground.