This is not hypothetical at all. It is an established pattern since decades and well explained in this must-read article:

The secret trading strategy from the 1930s that hedge funders don’t want you to know about

You must have some considerable amount of money to play this game, but the smaller a stock is the easier it is to manipulate. So a microcap like POET Technologies is great for those guys, especially if they can "create" shares out of nothing due to naked shorting, which to my knowlege is forbidden in Canada but you could get away with it since it is hard to provide evidence.

Of course substantial news always beats manipulation, but if the manipulators have good reason to assume such news won't come until, say, year's end or Q1 2015, they have ample time to play their games.

NDAs and secrecy also play into the manipulators' hands, because the company cannot defend itself. This fuels fear, uncertainty and doubt and helps them to drive the share price down.

Bottom line: Expect high volatility to continue. As a retail shareholder you have no chance to counter it. You might try to trade the ups and downs if you have the nerves or you can just hold tight, weather the storms, accumulate during the downs, and focus on the fundamentals only until that big news release comes out.