fed minister gives trading warning - yeah sure

For those that feel the trading practices in VIL over the last two weeks have been both frustrating and manipulative, I publish here an excerpt of a response to an HC member from the federal minister charged with upholding legitimate trading on the ASX.

Thanks to FactorThis for his/her diligent work. You can find it on the General thread.

"From the Office of the Hon Chris Bowen MP
Minister for Human Services, Minister for financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law.

...the government is concerned by any behaviour that seeks to manipulate the market. Deliberate attempts to force a security's price to an artificial level are illegal. As a market licensee, the ASX has a statutory obligation requiring it to do all things necessary to ensure that the financial market it operates is fair, orderly and transparent. The ASX must also have adequate arrangements for supervising the market including measures aimed at identifying possible instances of market manipulation.

End of response excerpt."

Hmmm. For two weeks VIL trades at .022, after brief dip, on reassuring news. Propped at .021 with little participation in trades by those 7-8 buyers. Capped at .023-.024 by sellers with no participation in trades.

Buyer numbers have fluctuated between 20 up to 60, yet sellers numbers have remained stable at approx 155-160. Lots of selling but no reduction in sellers. Hmmmm..

Sellers keep dumping into .022 yet they are all off-screen sellers, not allowing .023 to be taken in any real volume.

Yet over 40% of VIL's portfolio has been traded in the last two weeks. In effect, the sellers have been selling to themselves, or to cronies. And buying again and then selling to themselves ad infinitum.

How else can you explain seller numbers remaining constant? How else can you explain a concerted campaign to dump into .022. I once again draw your attention to the repetition of last 3 digits in sales. Boys playing games.

Screen jockeys with one hand on the sell/buy button and the other hand under their desk 'manipulating' their excitement. Their joysticks must be red raw by now.

If the Hon Chris Bowen MP wants to hold onto his esteemed title, he may want to do more than offer some reassuring spin to the masses and get ASIC to clamp down on restrictive trading practices such as we have seen for VIL of late.

I'm big and ugly to cop the barrage of criticism from HC members, but at least spell correctly. I will not respond to illiterate posts.

Larry