Bjorlin’s firm helped drive up by 925 percent the stock price of Galena Biopharma, a small pharmaceutical company, after placing dozens of articles about the company in reputable online outlets. Once, such hype might have targeted the uninitiated, but these days, an ­increasing number of stock trades are driven by computers making ­split-second decisions about when to buy or sell — often by using sophisticated algorithms to monitor price ­changes and even the flow of news on mainstream outlets and social media. Some worry that strategically placed commentary can move markets before experienced humans have time to sniff out a con.

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