I guess a few posters here don't really care about the morality (or lack thereof) but are just out to make money. Sad.
The stock market is all about money, money, money, the making of money, and more money, and yet still more money - by the ones who move the market, mainly the big banks. They are the ones who trade in 100s of millions of dollars multiple times each day. They're the main culprits, the riggers.
Want the DOW to close up? Buy the crap out of a some big caps like Apple, Microsoft etc., while selling the crap out of everything else. When the millions of lemmings hear the news that those are up, millions of "investors" buy the stock - guess who is selling the stock to them?
When price gets too low, the "investors" see losses that are getting too big to take much longer, so in order to cut their losses the "investors" dump the stock at a loss - guess who buying it from them as the price deteriorates? Wash rinse repeat ad infinitum.
Knowing this happens as a rule does not guarantee you will profit off of it because it is a matter timing, timing is everything in day trading. The ones with the big bucks establish the right and wrong timing but are so crafty about it so as to fool even expert traders - and even the manipulators are not always right. When they lose, they lose big, but most often can afford it....because they have several billions of dollars in their kitty.
Even so, a lot of regular people have done well in the markets, and a lot of people can do well, but what is true for most people is the old adage: "If you want to make a small fortune in the markets, start with a big fortune."