Yes to most** of the above.  BUT, price doesn't move in a straight line.  There is an ebb and flow (as discussed in the article) where in a bull market the price moves up too far for the demand, so it 'corrects' by moving back down until the price is low enough to re-trigger demand.  Two steps forward, one step back.  Traders make money timing the moves...buying low and selling high. I accumulate precious metal as savings, but I gamble with options in the market as a mechanism to buy more from 'winnings'.  I don't always get it right, but I'm right more often than wrong and that's what counts. **Beware too simple a view of 'manipulation'.  The market is a very complex machine.  Trump didn't 'stop the manipulation' when he was elected, but (to use an analogy) he may have stopped greasing the machine which has been either grinding to a halt or building up pressure to explode.