[ZenoArrow]

1. Buy stock/derivatives in a large company that could plausibly purchase another large company.

2. Announce rumours of merger/acquisition.

3. Stock price rises, sell stock/derivatives at a profit.

[athenot]

Umm, isn't that highly illegal? If you make a good profit and it can be traced to your rumor, I don't think the SEC finds that very funny.

[jhwang5]

True, but as you can see from SEC's stance of pump and dump schemes on altcoins, there are ways of blurring the lines of legality.

[lev99]

I am also under the impression not many people get caught doing a pump and dump.

[runako]

I'm not an expert at this! But it would seem a fairly straightforward way to profit without directly trafficking in securities linked to either purchaser or acquirer would be to instead use related company securities instead.

Ex: rumor is Amazon will buy Target. Buy securities on a basket of retail, ex-Target, with similarities to Target.

[fatjokes]

Yeah, IANAL, but that sounds like a textbook pump-and-dump.

[rwc]

This is exactly what Jim Cramer did