The number of shorts doubled after the announcement of the 30% headcount reduction target. The arrow below is the COB shorts the day before the announcement. The shorts jumped by COB on the day of that announcement, the 28th.
Whilst others have claimed that I am a "troll" for stating that I believe this will negatively impact the long term efficacy of the business, the market responded in two ways. 1) More profit due to less employees = increased EBITDA, and 2) Skills shortage = inability to take on new projects in future, declining employee sentiment, which in turn = declining EBITDA in the longer term.
I hedged my bet on a short term positive reaction to SP and immediately put a sell order on where I thought we might get to that day, but called it 2c too high and missed out. Busy at work and didn't get a chance to adjust later in the day, but I'm putting money where my mouth is == not "trolling".
So whilst I do wholeheartedly agree that there is significant corruption in ASX listed companies and insider trading galore, I don't think that this is a clear-cut example of any insider trading having taken place. I personally believe that there were three types of traders involved here, the shorter term traders that follow news announcements closely who bought in on the announcement on the day, the longer term investors who saw the future negative impact of the 30% headcount reduction and immediately shorted, as well as sold off or at least changed their sentiment to be less positive. Followed by the announcement of the quality issues, made it time to jump out which may also have triggered some stop-losses, particularly from shorter term traders that bought in on the headcount announcement.
Thanks to all that participate in discussions, even if we have different perspectives, and aren't rude. I wouldn't be interested in any discussion if there weren't any different perspectives, but am disappointed to have had to have blocked two user accounts due to recent personal attacks from having a different perspective.
(20min delay)