“The brokerage allowed potentially manipulative trading such as ‘spoofing,’ in which firms place orders designed to trick other firms into buying or selling stocks. Finra said clients also engaged in multiple ‘wash trades,’ in which a firm acts as buyer and seller in the same trade, creating the illusion of heavy trading volume that lures firms that are tracking for such activity. Finra last August implemented a sophisticated market-surveillance system that already has sparked nearly 300 investigations. The SEC is using a new market-monitoring system called Midas to track trading across stock exchanges.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324425204578597962040067332.html