High closing or juicing a stock involves placing large or high orders on specific shares — usually at the end of a trading session — to give the impression a portfolio is worth more than its actual value.

While this form of stock manipulation, known as high-closing share trading, falls on the less serious side of securities violations, Moorcroft said the incident has damaged the investment manager's reputation.

"This is about high closings which had minimal impact on the value of the portfolios, it had minimal impact on the value of the fees…" he said late Friday, shortly after the Royal and RT Capital Management Inc. issued a joint release admitting to the charges.

Moving a stock price up late in December, when trading is normally light, can improve performance in a private investor's or financial institution's investment portfolio and make the asset side of the balance sheet look a little healthier….

The Exchange believes that high closing has occurred in the past.