Fear is a powerful emotion. It is an evolutionary holdover from thousands of years ago when it was a necessary trait to survive. Have to run from a large cat? Yeah, that fear is going to get the adrenaline pumping and make you run faster and farther. Although technology has changed society, it hasn't changed humans very much. The same fears remain, sometimes brushed aside or ignored, but always there, waiting. Professional traders are well aware of this fact and through years of mastering and manipulating fear in others (and because of fierce competition within their own industry) have gained an edge over the non-educated investor. To understand how they do this will give you a greater understanding of how the markets generally work.
Fear of lossDuring bear markets, there comes a point where investors can't stand the thought of further loss. This is fear. Fear of loss. Fear of being wrong. Fear of having to explain to your friends and family why the investment you made lost so much money. It results in a selling climax that accelerates and gains momentum. Soon panic selling ensues (usually near the bottom) then rebounds like a basketball. If the volume is great enough it can even change the trend from bear to bull. This happens every time, in every market throughout history. Why is that? Why doesn't the price continue to fall? The answer is that investors, having waited on the sidelines for attractive prices, stop the selling. If they didn't, the price would fall forever. The buyers of these climactic selloffs are obviously bullish on the price or they wouldn't be buying. They plan to sell back at higher prices.
Fear of missing outThe second fear is the cause of greed and jealousy. It is fear of missing out. Say your neighbor or friend got rich with a certain stock. Certainly this gives you a strong temptation to buy the same stock and profit for yourself as you are jealous and seek to improve your financial position. It's no different with Bitcoin. Having accumulated coins (or stock, it works the same way), the same investors who bought all the extra supply at wholesale prices are now holding. The selling is slowly stopped as those who are tempted to sell eventually give in and leveraged positions are covered. Once this happens, the price will have a fairly easy time going up (with a little help of course). Suddenly sentiment changes, prices soar upwards and good news abounds. Fortunes are being made. As the price shoots up, suddenly those on the sidelines begin to feel fear again: Fear of missing out. They buy back in. At some point, the fear of missing out on profit becomes too great and "the herd" panic buys, usually near the top at the point of greatest euphoria. This gives the investors a perfect opportunity to sell to "the herd" at higher prices. As the stock is distributed to the new buyers, supply floods the market in greater quantities and the price tanks. This is called a buying climax and works in opposite to a selling climax.
Having identified both fears, it's fairly easy to see how they are manipulated for profit. Bad news often accompanies bear markets for the same reason good news accompanies bull markets. They are often timed this way to maximize profits for investors. During bull markets, investors can call their friends at CNBC and unwittingly the anchors and news outlets become stock pumpers. They don't know any better, but the smart money does. Why did good news about the dollar come out recently? Because it's at the top of a bull run and those who accumulated months ago need plenty of buy orders to sell into. Good news almost always accompanies market tops to tempt "the herd" into buying through fear. Now do you understand, on this forum and others, why there are so many negative trolls during bear markets and positive trolls during bull markets? They are not there to be your friend, that's for sure!
To test this theory, look at stocks that are being "pumped" on mainstream news outlets. Note the price and return a few months later--likely it will be lower. A good example is the dollar which has been in a steady uptrend for quite some time. Check out recent news, like this gem:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/dont-buck-the-dollar-trend-heard-on-the-street-1421189831. There is a chart with the words "Fly Like an Eagle." Are large investors stockpiling dollars at this price? Probably not, but they need someone to sell to, and they know the dumb-dumb public will fall for this. Understanding how this process works, again and again, and how the herd falls for it again and again, is key to understanding how markets operate.