5.2.1.3. Prohibition of Manipulative Activities Associated with the Purchase and Sale of Securities
FINRA prohibits member firms from engaging in all manipulative activities associated with the purchase and sale of securities. Specifically, it describes the following as forms of prohibited market manipulation:
•Executing or causing the execution of any NMS securities at successively higher prices, or sales of similar securities at successively lower prices in hopes of creating an artificial appearance of trade activity in the securities. An NMS security is any exchange-listed equity security that may be traded either on or off of an exchange.
•Effecting the transaction of any security that involves no change in beneficial ownership
•Matching identical buy and sell orders to create the appearance of an active market in a security
•Soliciting orders or carrying a