[ipsa]

We all know of market manipulation, like the story of the high school kid spamming stocks to Yahoo message boards [1], but what of competitor, - industry - or country manipulation? You find out that your competitor is trading on search trend signals, so manipulate the signals and bet against them. Model predicts high uncertainty for the British Pound, so bet against the Pound, and promote a Brexit. Model predicts copper will see long-term uptrend, so go long on copper futures, invest in heavy copper-use industry to expand their operations, strategically advise them to go long-stock on copper so they have an advantage over competition, later stage investors will notice the positive industry news and growth - and the uptrend in copper. All of demand and scarcity for copper will rise and your investments profitable.

BTW: RenTech made a fortune when they were long on oil futures and the Iraq war happened. Another possible legit use for the NSA/CIA type recruits could be for geopolitical intelligence.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/21/business/sec-says-teenage...