HS, one thing you need to understand is that all companies talk...

HS, one thing you need to understand is that all companies talk up their prospects. How many CEO's etc say negative things about the company they are running? Its there job to sell it to the market, to get the share price up, its your job to listen/read and make your own assessment.

The only time a CEO ever down plays things is when they are new to the company and they have a grace period to write things down etc.

They are not trying to force the price down, hold it down etc, its just very hard to turn negative sentiment around. It happens to most stocks on the ASX, that is why most never really amount to much.