People who think Bitcoin's price is immune to mannipulation don't know how price mannipulation works. In a digital market, the same entity can buy and sell the same asset back and forth, each time increasing the price and therefore causing the price to bubble up while selling some to "suckers."
Who are the suckers? Suckers are naiive or greedy traders who buy during the bubble. The mannipulators try to sell as much as they can while artificially bubbling the price and when they're done, price will correct.
Great post BTW. You got my vote + resteem ;]