LEAD: "Read Sun Tzu," said the greedy financial manipulator portrayed by Michael Douglas in the movie "Wall Street."

"Sorrell is a clever financial manipulator," said Richard Dale, an analyst for James Capel & Company in London.

Not only did it set a dreadful example for other aspiring sadists, but it inevitably created entire networks of ruthless financial manipulators, fellow travelers, and agents.

He'd never intended to be one of die 'ruthless financial manipulators of die Nation's economy,' and didn't especially enjoy being one.

Buyout firms are also criticized because they are not builders; instead they are financial manipulators that generally break up and sell off pieces of companies, laying off many workers in the process.

Sir Gordon has always insisted that he is an industrialist, intent upon buying companies for the long term, not just a financial manipulator.

While under international control, Tangier, with its duty-free port, became a center for financial manipulators, smugglers, and international intrigue.

Mr. Darman also complained of creative talents who "are motivated to invent paper transactions that merely reward financial manipulators rather than expand private productive capacity."

In September 1869, financial manipulators Jay Gould and Jim Fisk set up an elaborate scam to corner the gold market through buying up all the gold at the same time to drive up the price.

The scandals, it is pointed out, have all involved financial manipulators, takeover artists who move paper around, not the managers of productive companies.