Question on volatile price action?

If you look at a tick chart for any security, price action is bizarre.

There are “V” and “^” motifs, with buying sequences initiated at different price points.

It literally does not make sense that buying would take place at any price above a clear bottom.

The types of market participants whose buying causes actual moves would not add to positions at random price points.

Additionally, two days in a row in the afternoon the market all of a sudden decided to sell?

Again, any smart person would not have sold if they bought near the top, and no smart person would sell as it’s tumbling (because a smart person would either be truly long beyond a day and/or wouldn’t initiate a position on a fake day).

There are two possibilities:

1. Price action is real. Somebody explain it.

2. Price action is fake. Somebody explain who/what/why/how price action is manipulated.

Should I approach price action as if a room full of illogical people are pressing buttons?