Kursmanipulation på finansmarknaden - Om gällande rätt för kursmanipulation och varför marknaden behöver reglering

Sammanfattning: This thesis discusses the phenomenon price manipulation, and its legislation. The definition of price manipulation is artificially deflating or inflating the price of a certain financial security. There are a number of ways to manipulate prices, and the consequences are usually tangible. Legislation in this area is relevant in several aspects. The essay highlights the key legal perspective; maintaining an economically viable market. The center of the legislation revolves around the Market Abuse Directive (MmD) on EU-level, which contains regulations concerning market manipulation. The directive’s principal regulation is reflected in the Swedish act Lag (2005:377) om straff för marknadsmissbruk vid handel med finansiella instrument (MmL). The central paragraph in the act is 8 § corresponding to Article 5 of the MmD. Trust for the market is of outmost importance for the economy, and for illustrative purposes, I describe and analyze two financial theories, the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) and Akerlof’s Lemon Theory. The EMH deals with how information turns into prices on the market and the different levels of market efficiency at which this phenomenon occurs. Akerlof’s Lemon Theory describes a scenario in which the trust on the market is erased and how the market function is distorted. The danger of price manipulation is shown to mainly be a failing trust for the market, which is why it is important to legislate on what is considered to constitute price manipulation and try to minimize the damage that follows from it. I’ve analyzed case law by looking at six different cases, which shows how the problem of price manipulation manifests itself in practice. These cases are mainly about self-trade, which occur when the same person tries to manipulate the prices of a security by trading with himself with different depots.