Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

The Koch bros are small potatoes compared to Blackrock.

I'm actually surprised this type of down - up - down fluctuation doesn't happen MUCH more often

The market is so huge it's very difficult to influence a major part of it in this way.  One factor is all the algorithms "traders" use that fire buys and sells in microseconds.  This is one reason the market can react as it did the past couple of days, major downs usually, not so often ups without news.  There supposedly are circuit breakers now after the day crash of 1987.  
And of course, once a major player starts selling some specific stock, the price inherently drops quickly, and they may end up selling on the way down, and then buying on the way back up becomes a zero sum game.  There isn't all that much stock available near asking price.  I think manipulation happens, but it's with the algorithms and it's in the fractions of fractions.  

For example, there are "carry trades" where outfits borrow currency from a country with low interest rates and buy a short term bond fund from a country with higher interest rates, the spread may be a percent or two, but it's real money if it works and you can cover the vigs.

Volume, and turnover rates.  You might be making 0.5% every week.  It adds up.

The odd thing, to me, is that managed funds over time do worse than market averages with very very few exceptions.    Some do well in a year or three and then track back to average.  This is why ETFs have become so popular, along with low fees.  You'd think a managed fund by "professionals" would do better, but largely they do not.

The main reason I'd pay some professional one percent is to get one percent extra return, versus buying an ETF and paying a tenth of a percent.

I think I own one mutual fund that is managed because it hold stocks in Europe, for some diversity.

Since I retired and took over my own IRA, I've beaten the market pretty handily over ten years, maybe a couple were even.  But I had some very lucky picks, I know that.

A small "fund" can be heavily influenced by a couple lucky picks, in my case, Apple and Costco, neither of which my previous "pro" wanted to buy.

We don't pay managers of elite sports teams to be average for very long, maybe the White Sox might.

This is good.

https://www.wsj.com/economy/housing/mortgage-rates-drop-to-15-month-low-e744aa2c?st=pjabbqhrmh8vjt1&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
https://www.wsj.com/economy/housing/mortgage-rates-drop-to-15-month-low-e744aa2c?st=pjabbqhrmh8vjt1&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

They can have emergency meetings if they deem one needed.  I don't think we're there at this point.  The stock market seems to be shaking off the declines and recovering a bit.  (Futures are down slightly at the moment, not enough to be real.)

Oil prices are a decent indicator also, I think, and while they have declined a bit, they also appear to have stabilized and moved up a bit.

I continue to read about layoffs every day, in so many industries.
Layoffs coming to Stellantis Warren plant as Ram 1500 Classic production ends (detroitnews.com)

Tech giants, media companies downsizing their workforces  (businessreport.com)
Tech giants, media companies downsizing their workforces  (businessreport.com)

IMHO, this is the key wildcard in the POTUS election this fall.  

As per usual in politics, the key issue is perception not reality.  Does the electorate perceive that we are entering a recession or will they perceive that we are in a recession when they vote?  

One thing that changes the equation is early voting.  20-some years ago nearly everyone voted on election day which this year is Tuesday, November 5.  In Ohio early voting starts four weeks ahead of the date of the election so Tuesday, October 8.  That could be a really big deal that could cut either way.  Suppose that the economy continues to slow down, early voting presumably helps the Democrats because it will be not as bad when voting starts as it is on election day.  OTOH, suppose that the economy starts perking up in mid-to-late September.  In that case early voting would presumably help Republicans because perception typically lags reality so by the time people realize that the slowdown has reversed, a lot of them will have already voted.