Quote from Option Trader:
What is "high closing"?
It is typically done in a low volume stock.
You send a small 200-300 shared order roughly 30-60 seconds before closing...
And you can usually close the stock higher by $0.05 or so.
If you have a 5,000 share position...
This is very helpful...
You might get $0.05 more the next day on your whole position.
But "high closing" is market manipulation and specifically prohibited by a specific regulation...
And it only works for lower volume stocks...
But people do it all the time...
because it is very hard to ** prove **.
The only way to prove it... is to show a steady pattern of high closing in a specific stock...
Doing it once a week cannot prove guilt.
Also...
Mathematically "high closing" is an extremely marginal strategy...
And probably not worth it for anything other than penny stocks.