But the placement of the orders at Bitstamp seemed to be engineered to drive the price up, wasn't that the general conclusion?
Not hardly. The buyer(s) could have been more stealthy, but it's not at all clear that the buyer(s) were colluding, and if they are competing to get the same coins, they are going to have to move the market. If you're racing against other walls, you're pushing the price up, every time. Any collusion you get is usually through market signalling, and it's always loaded with 99.44% distrust of both the signal and the source.
There's always going to be someone who pushes their pet theory of what's going on. Usually if it involves someone intentionally shooting their own foot, it's a bogus theory. In practice most folks dislike shooting their feet. They do it plenty often accidentally, but they at least try to avoid it.
