Echo,
You're not paranoid. This is very real. I've watched my dad trade nasdaq stocks since 1999 and it's pretty impossible to NOT notice such atrocities. A stock would be sailing up so smoothly and once I get in (even 200 shares, size doesn't matter), it stops and uses my entry point as the top and keeps bumping into it and then eventually it reverses to the point where I get out. Almost every time, when I catch a strong stock, it reverses on me and then makes new highs and keeps going...How can I be wrong every time? You all can disagree, but I am not gonna accept that I am wrong every time. I am forced to be wrong because some big shot is using my orders as a contrary indicator. The contrary indicator based on the convenient quote, "the small guy is always wrong." The small guy isn't always wrong, he is forced to be wrong. It is so systematic that even a blind person can notice it.
"Stock keeps going up; hmmm, where do I short?; Let me wait for a small trader and then I'll sack the stock with my unlimited shorting power. Then where do I cover? I'll cover right when the small guy gets out AND gets short. And then I will bring the stock back up to new highs and f%$k him both ways...Ahhhh, how good it feels to rob the weak..."
I remember trading BOOM back in 2004 I beleive, when it was going towards $30. The stock is up on tremendous volume and then it is consolidating. It starts to break out again, and I jump in with 5000 shares, it goes 10 cents higher and reverses. And I place another 5000 to buy, and now there is a seller placing a 5000 order against me on the exact offer price where I initially got in. I get hit. He gets hit. But he refreshes his offer while I'm out of buying power. The stock fell 50 cents and I lost 5k in 10 minute. Where I got out was the bottom at that point. It did not go a penny below where I got out. I immediately shut down the system and walked away. I checked at the end of the day and the stock was up another 3 bucks from where I had bought... Was I not right in my entry?
After such beatings, I've learned the hard way that being right or wrong doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is controlling risk and persistence. These two things are the key. If it doesn't work the first time, get out immediately and get back in if it goes up later. Don't hold on to losers and don't give up. Let them play all the games they can, but they can't stop you from getting out and controlling your risk. The more you realize this, the better you will get.