Chris - I agree with your statement that this is more retail shakeout manipulation, which we have seen for a long time as big players jump in and out. But also think about this. You mentioned in another post response that you don't know if there are buyers.
Look at the pattern and compare this with history. There have always been buyers waiting as retail gives up. The difference in the last few days is tha before the "waiting" buyers were patient and willing to wait for retail to sel to them so the decline and recovery were stretched out.
Call me crazy, but I see these days as those waiting buyers being less patient and less willing to wait for sellers. They are jumping back in more quickly which is why we have been able to recover so quickly.
You are right that tension is building. Retail is stupid but not that stupid. At some point they are going to realize that if they sell now the PPS will recover. As they become less willing to sell, the buyers will become less willing to wait. That causes the PPS to shoot up. Add in shorts who realize that there is a trend reveresal (and not all will) and you make for a decent pop.
In my book this is very positive this week. IMO the cal to Cramer was in hopes that it would knock the PPS down. As long as KRY does not return to its hugging the lows all day, the momentum will be up. Just watch out for another Raul article or Bloomberg. IMO GT's interview was the first time he has shown balls and that is good.
I have held my trading shares through Wednesday and todays dips as a result. I have been in seminars so I could not watch a lot of the action and the orders I put in did not get filled.
Look at the market sentiment. Players "think" something is up and want to be sure they are in. Until that changes, I am holding and adding.