Ann: Drilling Confirms Growth Potential at Mt Thirsty, page-152

Here is the draft of the email to the Senate Standing Committee on Financial Affairs and Public Administration. Comments and any suggestions welcome.

' This email arises from a reading of an article in the SMH of Wednesday 21/06/2023 concerning the committee's investigations into the ASIC's lack of diligence in combating financial malfeasance. I'm writing as a retail shareholder on behalf of myself and,I suspect,many other retail shareholders who have suffered,and are suffering from the inability of ASIC to maintain and enforce market regulations designed to ensure a fair and proper operation of the Australian Stock Market.
In sum, ASIC is commonly referred to as a 'toothless tiger'. It would be instructive to call upon ASIC to provide details of emails protesting market wrongdoing by major players, which have been deleted and not replied to. In my view, the number would run into the thousands.

Be that as it may, I'm taking this opportunity to point out unfair tactics faced by retail shareholders, especially in the way the exploration and mining sector of the ASX is conducted.

Once upon a time, if an exploration company gradually became successful as it proved up resources and moved towards a viable operation, its share price would be reflective of this and would trend upwards. However, nowadays the opposite is the case.

Why?

The following extract from a post in Hot Copper explains it;

Logically the answer is 'yes' Tee_J_Live, apart from any dilution and no reason to have to cash out your holdings in the meantime. And-an issue for some of us-if you're still alive and in good shape to benefit from the wait. The fundamental task of the 'Market' in the Capitalist system is to establish the value of something at any given moment in time.That task can be -and is- qualified by human emotions and external factors.The normal vicissitudes of life. However, the advent of sophisticated computer programming has disrupted the process to a significant degree.Unless everybody has access to these programs,then the market falls under the control of only those entities who have the wherewithal to deploy them.This unfair advantage gives them the ability to manipulate the market to their own advantage. Totally against the rules but we have a market overseer which effectively doesn't give a toss about what happens in this sector of the market.Or hasn't got the resources to police the rules as it should.
Now, how hard would it be to set up a computer program designed to red flag irregularities and manipulation in trading patterns? Not very,I would suggest.
Why hasn't it been done?

In other words as a company proves its resources,major players via the use of these algorithmic computer programs, manipulate its share price

downwards as they build up their holdings with the aim of maximising their profits when the share price is allowed to run and find its proper level.

The downside to this practice is that it comes at a cost to ordinary retail shareholders who have value stripped from their holdings or are 'stopped out,' during the acquisition period by the major players.

Attached below is a report by a Senate Committee in 2013 on the legality of the use of computer programing to manipulate share prices or as they say create 'artificial' prices;

It would appear the ASX and other entities who are engaged in the Stock Market have had undue influence on Government in the past.Why should there be a ten minute 'after-market auction period' where the price of a stock can be set by as little as ONE share which then becomes the opening quote for the general market on the next trading day? This happens on a regular basis. And a share price reduced by a point in a 'sale' of one share may require a buy of maybe 50,000 shares to recover that point. This also happens during normal trading hours where 'bots' place strategic 'buys' or 'sells' in order to produce an 'artificial' price.

I would suggest to the committee that the 'after-market auction' period be discontinued. It serves no purpose,in my view,except to give further advantage to large market players over the ordinary retail shareholder.They will no doubt argue that they are creating 'liquidity' which benefits the market.This is nothing but sophistry.It benefits them only.

I note Mr Joseph Longo has extensive legal experience working for Deutsche Bank.Banks or their stockbroking arms, comprise a large part of the major participants in the Stock market and definitely use their muscle to serve 'the bottom line'.I have no issue with this in general, but they should play by the same rules as every retail shareholder has to.

I feel if the proper function of the market as a price finding system is to be preserved, then the use of electronic trading via sophisticated computer programs should be prohibited in stock market trading, or some other method of leveling up the playing field is found, so retail shareholders are not unduly disadvantaged.

At the moment stock market trading rules are flouted daily.And the perpetrators are no more than leeches who use their unfair advantage to steal value from ordinary shareholders.

In conclusion, I'd like to congratulate this all party committee in acting as one in their dim view of ASIC's very poor performance as enforcer of market rules[ especially in the exploration and mining sector of the ASX]. The view is well founded and I trust substantial positive action will result from it.

Sincerely'

db