Are stock spams sent by the company concerned?
It’s hard to say, but it seems that in many cases the answer is ‘no’. It’s easy to assume that a spam which appears to promote a company must have been sent by that company. However, other individuals or organizations also have an interest in promoting a stock. These include third-party speculators who hold shares in that stock, brokers and market makers who buy and sell the stock, and marketing firms who have been paid to advertise it. Stock spam can lead to short-term increases in a company’s share price, but these are usually followed by a sharp fall. This can be very damaging to the company. This is one reason why it’s not usually in the interests of the company to send stock spam. In contrast, dishonest speculators can often gain by talking up the price of a stock. Some recent studies, including a study by Rainer Bhme and Thorsten Holz, and another study by Laura Frieder and Jonathan Zittrain have shown that this kind of stock manipulation can be highly profitable. It seems likely
