In general, people assume it's more than one person doing the manipulation, that's why I addressed it as a conspiracy. Although there's always the rich lone gunman trope that's not too far off.
Anyways, there's always walls, and many whales are not so bright. Some think they can manipulate the market, but chances are, people will try calling what they think is a bluff. Then there's the genuine whales who places large bid/ask walls in hope that they actually gets quickly filled, for better or for worse, which I think is likely the case here. But some people might think it's a bluff and sell into it.
As for whales with large orders, they think the market will go in a direction, and they want to cause a chain reaction by shifting their weight around. They aren't out to push the market up just a little then sell, they're in it for the more mid-term/long-term, unless they start to panic.
Most whales only place small orders, unless something big is happening.
Whales can't push the price where it doesn't want to go. Whales can't change the overall trend, unless they had millions, and timed everything perfectly, to include the correct wave counts, etc. This would likely be a great loss to them. It's better for them to go with the trend.
Some things are correct, some are not.
There are 3 group of traders (in general):
- plankton traders, who are 100% time on the market and are 10% correct
- whale traders, who are (depending on the group) 80 - 100% time on the market (they need holidays from time to time) and are 80% correct
- daddys, who are 1 - 10% time on the market and are 90 -99% correct
Whales screw plankton. Whales have knowledge of planktology and apply this knowledge with a use of various tools and actions, e.g. they scare them with walls, they have shills spreading news like ''I see a head and shoulders'', I see a double top'', and what not. Some of these shills even accept donations.
Daddys screw whales (and indirectly plankton; you know whales need to cover losses they suffer from daddys and screw plankton even more). Daddys have knowledge of whaleology.