操纵证券市场被各个国家和地区的法律广泛禁止，但其定义仍不明确、充满争议。从我国操纵证券市场立法、执法和司法实践来看，操纵证券市场“兜底条款”及法律规定的具体操纵情形在解释时缺乏明确价值指引，构成要件的判断方法存在分歧，影响法律适用的正当性。解决这些问题，关键在于规范法律解释和事实认定的方法和路径。这一规范方法和路径就是基于价值导向的类型思维。所谓类型，与僵化的概念不同，具有不变的中心价值和可变的构成要素，较机械的概念更符合法律所欲规范的生活现象本质。法律规定的操纵证券市场符合类型的特征，其中心价值就是操纵的本质。无论解释“兜底条款”还是适用具体操纵情形，都不能脱离操纵证券市场的本质。通过对操纵证券市场实践类型的共同特征、社会危害以及操纵目的实现机理三个维度的分析论证，可以得出滥用市场优势、扭曲自由公平证券价格形成机制系操纵证券市场的本质，也就是法律规定的操纵证券市场类型中心价值。操纵证券市场的构成要件包括行为要件、结果要件、主观要件以及违法所得等。其中，结果要件系选择性要件，认定操纵无需证明操纵行为产生了实际危害结果。违法所得则是刑法上操纵证券市场犯罪的独立定罪要件。主客观要件之间并非平面组合关系，认定案件事实需按照阶层性思考逻辑，由客观不法到主观有责进行阶层性地判断。在无法确定客观行为是否不法的情形下，不能仅因行为人具有操纵故意便径直认定其行为构成操纵。具体操纵行为的认定，均应围绕滥用市场优势行为是否存在及其产生的作用展开。根据操纵者所滥用市场优势类型的不同，具体操纵类型可以区分为交易型操纵、信息型操纵和技术型操纵。交易型操纵中，资本优势及滥用行为的判断为核心问题，真实交易型操纵的认定路径应当由操纵结果“人为价格”推定转向对非正当介入因素的综合考察，不应过度依赖结果推定。信息型操纵中，信息优势认定应当根据信息的重大性和行为人的市场优势地位进行实质判断，扭曲价格的滥用行为的判断则需综合根据信息生成、散布的异常性和隐瞒利益冲突行为进行判断。当下证券市场中的技术优势主要表现为高频交易，技术优势的作用主要在于强化交易型操纵的实施效果，大多在高频交易中的操纵行为仍属于交易型操纵。
Although securities market manipulation is widely prohibited by law across the world, its definition is still ambiguous and controversial. There still haven’t been a clear definition of manipulation till now. Neither legislatures nor judicial authorities give clear instructions on how to understand miscellaneous and other specific provisions of the securities regulation. It has been a controversial issue what kind of conducts can be identified as manipulation. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a proper way to understand and apply the regulations of manipulation. The typological thinking approach based on legal dogmatism, offers a normative, systematic legal methods to justify the interpretation of law and the identification of the facts. Rather than concepts which are kinds of abstract and rigid, a type in law consisted of common value and variable elements, is flexible and reveal the core nature of things. It is consistent with the nature of world. Securities market manipulation is a kind of type in law. To determine suspicious conduct as manipulation according to miscellaneous provisions of the securities law, it is necessary to find out the essence of securities market manipulation first and then determine what are required to constitute manipulation. Through the analysis of the purpose of prohibiting manipulation, the operational mechanism of manipulation, and the specific types of manipulation listed by law, it can be concluded that the essence of manipulation is market abuse which destroys price formation mechanism. The elements of manipulation include conducts of market abuse, results by manipulation, manipulative intent of the traders and the illegal income, etc. And the key elements of manipulation include conducts, consequences, intentions and illegal benefits. The consequence is not a compulsory issue. It is not necessary to prove the causation between stock price changes and manipulative conducts. Furthermore, intent is an insufficient tool in identifying manipulation, instead, only those conducts of market abuse with objective harm to the securities market could be deemed manipulative. Therefore, when identifying manipulation, we should analyze from objective conduct to subjective intention, avoiding groundless conclusion. Since market abuse is the essence of manipulation, when we discuss the meaning and application of specific types of manipulation, the key point is whether there exists market abuse and its effects. According to the advantages that abusers make use of, manipulation can be divided into three types: trade-based manipulation, information-based manipulation and technology-based manipulation. In the identification of trade-based manipulation, capital advantage and abuse behavior are core issues which needs to be judged by the improper intervention in trade. As to the information-based manipulation, it’s very important to decide if a trader has abnormal acts from which getting illegal income by concealing interest conflict based on information advantage. As to the technology-based manipulation, it often behaves in high-frequency trading. But high-frequency trading itself can be seen as trade-based manipulation too. The main role of technical advantage is to help complete trade-based manipulation.
