I think a smart whale should stop manipulating here and start driving up the price of bitstamp
it would cost very little to drive bitstamp up high enough
actually, it would cost a lot, because they would need to pump in real cash on bitstamp, and not some fake mtgox$.
manipulation was so much easier when mtgox was no 1.
do you remember ddos attacks on mtgox? now mtgox goes offline - nothing happens.
Do you really think this push up was bought with "fake mtgox$"? More likely with large fiat deposits expedited by paid manual processing.
While the price spread between MtGox and other exchanges remains, it is Gox that sets the trend and the other exchanges tend to follow, whether minnows (who can't afford manual processing) like it or not.
Also, there aren't enough coins available on the other exchanges to fulfill their hoarding requirements without skewing the price too quickly, which they seem to be avoiding. It's not all about driving up the price. It seems to be more about acquiring a large inventory of coins as cheaply as possible while preventing any price slippage to protect the value of their holdings.
Of course the manipulators will do their manipulation on MtGox.