What I remember - correct me if I am wrong. Dates in January 2012:
6th - The rally is stopped at 7.2 in a curiously even pattern. A small dip follows.
8th/9th - Rally is again stopped at 7.2. Asterisk at bitcoinica 'buy' button looks like the culprit (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=57178.0). Another dip and subsequent rallies all stop when * appears at bitcoinica buy button.
11th - 16th - Sideways pattern, rallies always stop below 7.2. Asterisk hypothesis confirmed.
13th - S3052 sends a very positive weekly report but it did not overcome the bitcoinica asterisk
15th - 17th - Again price drops down slightly
about 9pm UTC the drops start to be quite regular
after 10pm most probably bitcoinica liquidations start cascading (there are little bids left on MtGox for these prices - so the liquidations move the price down and cause other liquidations), price drops to 4.65
price goes back to 6.4 and then oscillates in a triangle- someone starts buying
when the triangle ends at 5.6, price breaks up and suddenly someone buys all the way to 6.95 (about 20K of BTC), forcing liquidation of many shorters in turn (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=59980.msg699115#msg699115)
the price again goes down to 5.6 with huge volume and again is stopped by a buy out plus bid walls around 5.4
the price again oscilates in a down leaning triangle
It is quite evident now - that:
1. The rally from 5 to 7 was overly leveraged
2. Someone with big money is using this as an opportunity to buy a lot