By the way I forgot to mention the importance of the timing. The time was picked when there would be virtually no one to resist their play as everyone was more interested in going to lunch.

When they got ready to cover they had someone hang around who could make sure they had the active bid price at which to buy back their shares and apparently they had little or no competition.

But many small investors probably bailed at "market price" after the stock got creamed and handed them a nice profit.