"Maybe I'm wrong but I see this strickly as a liquidity issue as there is always someone somewhere who wants out of the market at any one time. If you have good volume of trading (for Noront that's 800K plus a day) there is liquidity and no problem dropping 10K shares without dropping the share price. Low volume and you get either sharp price increases or drops both of which are distorted by low volume."

Of course it's a matter of liquidity.  But liquidity at the quantity and price one is looking for.  Try and get SPQ for .11 right now.  You'll have a long wait, not withstanding a sudden shift in momentum.  You also needed to see the way it was taken down from a very resistant .12 crowd.  In other words, the price goes down from the blatant manipulation but the low sp doesn't necessarily mean it's easy to pick up for that price.