The conspiracy theory breaks down as the information would only be useful IF the people using it could predict what demand for bonds would be. Setting it at 4.8% if demand was for a higher quantity would be potentially giving up on cash, similarly if demand was lower then they wouldn't get anything. Though it is a bit of a coincidence that it ended on exactly that - either yours was highest bond paid or someone else DID choose 4.8%. It makes no sense for someone to pick 4.8% because you did - 4.799% makes far more sense.
I'm a bit puzzled why you picked 4.8% anyway. Are you really SURE that if the final rate ended up at 4.7% your investors would prefer to get nothing than risk their capital? Because that's what setting a rate of 4.8% means - that you'd rather not invest than take any lower.
I'd have thought you should just be setting your rate at somewhere around 2% - so investors funds get used any time it'll cover your premium + the max 1% selling fee.
We had seen MPBOR for previous months consistently end up in the 4.9-9.9% range (please note that MPBOR can be different than net result - like November MPBOR was 9.9%, but net result was a loss), so decided going just a notch lower is pretty safe. Looks like we did indeed risk our bond being unused, although without MPOE revealing the distribution it's hard to tell. We'll heed this warning.
I am not trying to get into conspiration theories. Just thinking maybe we inadvertently provided other bondholders a number to latch on.
I just had a proper look at the bonds list.
Here's the list:
198xX3n8ov4ejgEsWjt3SpPRkDuieL3EHA 120.00000888
1dNhiuBxKFjkxi5uWYhKzyy3rr65nMkDo 100.00000888
1D7YtrxnyK3ug3Rvp9jX66T8kVzWww9Jr8 4478.46233504
1NTfLJi1AZgzeXNHF5Gx1sAmRj6RBE7qxe 100.00000888
1Pk9FAH7dCGBZ1mw5HbU9AgAvYhrQnFZFp 100.00000888
1Mn65Q9Xm6NBoPdF8ppS3AzgRLt92ZKtTq 100.00000888
16yqE5GW2iLnXvCX3SHe6r5UbRFAuARond 2`157.00762056
The last one is the one that was cut off - so that one must have bid 4.8% too. We know that's the one that was cut off for a few reasons:
1. I'm pretty sure the list is done from lowest to highest requested rate.
2. We know none of the others were the cut-off point (all the ones ending in 888 obviously got full allocation and the 4467.xx one submitted exactly same amount previous month so clearly didn't get cut off).
If we then look at January list we see:
198xX3n8ov4ejgEsWjt3SpPRkDuieL3EHA 120.00000888
1D7YtrxnyK3ug3Rvp9jX66T8kVzWww9Jr8 4`478.46233504
1Mn65Q9Xm6NBoPdF8ppS3AzgRLt92ZKtTq 100.00000888
16yqE5GW2iLnXvCX3SHe6r5UbRFAuARond 2`261.23910617
1swAzHw1zTWqoi5184VinvUxLWnBskPVW 3`708.33297766
1CqQiHmp2T3TWXZx3J7yueDxH5rVnZ9A94 1`726.89016169
1A2hqHVSUERAT3t1yJ7ggYCQccvH6pZGZm 1`904.91150845
Notice that the one that was cut-off this month occurs before the last three larger investors - indicating (if I'm correct about hte lsit being in requested-rate order) that he asked for less than 3 of the other 4 large investors (who presumably invested again this month but didn't have their funds used). Whilst it's possible he copied your rate it seems highly unlikely that a regular investor would change to exactly same rate as a small investor (changing to 1 satoshi less is always better). I think it's just coincidence that he picked same rate as you - a round number just below the expected average.
IF 3 largish investors missed out in Feb there has to be a good chance they'll bid lower this month (or that at least 2 will - it's entirely possible the last one who bid 9.99 in Jan in a 2nd bid from someone, equally it could be someone who's fairly risk-averse and doesn't want their funds used unless the potential return is high).