A big cap like GE has many factors in it. GE has the largest capitalization of any corporation in the world by far. It is the largest weighting stock in the S&P 500. Therefore it is suscepitible to program trading. A stock like GE is very liquid. Basically, all day institutions are throwing block trades back and forth. You have to remember the specialist has power but he can not move a stock like GE at will. But he does participate in it especially now with decimals.
If you look at a thinner stock you can see a specialist play his game. In a thin stock the specialist is almost always on the bid, the offer or both. This is when you will see if he plays games. In a stock like GE, a bid or offer for 50,000 shares is not a big deal. BUT if you see a bid like that in stock that only trades 200,000 shares a day than it means something. So a stock like GE is basically in a league of its own. It is not the same as a smaller stock like EME (small cap) or BRL (mid cap). There are hundreds of good listed stocks to trade. In my opinion GE is not one of them. You have to remember that when you order for 500 or 1,000 shares pops up on his book, he doesn't give as shit about it. So in my opinion if you just starting to trade listed stocks...find some Mid-caps over $25. They are good to learn from. Then when you see how the specialist tries to deceive, you can move on to Big-caps.
Chris