While enquiring into the trading pattern of Easow, Sebi found that he had taken an opposite trading pattern to what had been recommended to the investors. “It is axiomatic that a person who recommends others to buy securities must himself be either passive or buy such securities rather than sell them,” the petition said. “The only circumstance when a person would sell securities after telling lay investors to buy would be a person who is taking advantage of his misleading information in the first place by giving stock tips, thereby inflating the price of the stock and then offloading such securities after the recommendation is aired,” it added.