For some time now there have been regular posts made to this...

For some time now there have been regular posts made to this board calling attention to trading activities that suggest market manipulation.
UCM and other growing Micro Cap stocks provide a fertile playground for such manipulation due to their small size, concentrated interests, low trading turnovers and buoyant outlooks.
Recent practices exposed in UCM trading records over the last couple of months show these manipulative trading practices are becoming more common and more brazen. They have been responsible for some of the recent instability in the UCM share price, from which it is now recovering.
As an example: A common and annoying complaint identified by a number of posters appears to be the trading concentration at close of trade aimed at cancelling out, or at least reducing, any daily price gains.

TAKING ACTION
Comments among posters to the UCM discussion have suggested this is the action of a larger holder hoping to accumulate at a good price. In my view there might be other deeper, more compelling reasons, including purpose driven mischief. Hopefully investigations will clarify the reasons in the fullness of time.
Many market manipulators shelter behind the ASX practice of aggregating public domain daily data feeds into cumulative records overnight. This makes it very difficult to track past behavior or analyse past records of individual trades.
The solution is simple: All UCM trades are captured and recorded daily in several databases where trade footprints remain for further analysis or use in evidence.
As an example the following is a Snapshot of last Friday 25 July 2020 UCM trades - which are notable for three things:
1. The closing trading activities Friday;
2. The lack of a closing auction or any form of closing process - no close had been recorded by 6;35pm Friday night.
3. A record of two Saturday 25/07/20 trades made at 5:01pm which show by the totals they are meant to be part of the previous days trade.
While it is possible none of these observations serve to identify any malpractice, they do serve to illustrate the accurate and efficient trading monitoring now in place.



The ASX BUSINESS RULE GUIDANCE NOTE COVERING RULE.2.2.4 - Prevention of Manipulative Trading Is available at: https://www.asx.com.au/pdf/TradingPractices.pdf
This document is just coming up 20 years old. Many younger traders may not know of its existence. I would recommend they download it and read it.
Active Traders need to understand that should they contravene Rule 2.2.4, they may be, not only open to being the subject of an ASX investigation, but may also be referred to an ASIC investigation and or may be subject to prosecution under Corporation Law as well as open to private damages suits.
It is made clear in rule 2.2.4 that unacceptable trading may amount to Prohibited Conduct under the rules even if no Business Rule 2.2.4 is directly broken.

In simple terms a Broker, or a person facilitating Trading, must ensure their platforms are not used to facilitate Manipulative Trading. They have a duty of care to oversee traders using their platforms. This applies also to clients using algorithmic trading - ignorance is no excuse. Brokers are the ones most likely to suffer the most damage, being exposed to ASX penalties or civil damage suits, if their clients are caught.