hedge funds manipulate stock in secret, page-28

Ok, may have gone too far - its a personal trait I'm trying to curb. However, the text you posted is fine and in principal is pertinent, however the author could not have foreseen electronic trading - BOTs and the like. He could not have also have foreseen the real time trading and volumes that BOT and computerised trading can create, i.e. the interaction, in this case, between BOT short selling and dynamic internet trading, coupled with traditional stock broking, in effect the result of all this interaction, brought about by modern trading. Just one example, there is no playing field when it comes to single traders and brokers, let alone single traders and corporations. If you need evidence of this, just look at the cost of doing a single ASX tranaction.

The last statement you made, "one must consider the short sales as a legitimate reaction to fundamental concerns about the state of the market.", although a fair statement in itself, does not apply if some analysis is applied to Centro.

It is true that on some levels the Centro business model could be considered high risk, however for this to be true the fundamental value of the assets would need to be in question. In this case, the apparent asset quality of Centro properties, its customers, its leases and the PUM side of the business would need to be very poor indeed for Centro's sudden demise.

In reality, none of the above factors is seriously in question - as indicated by the willingness of the lenders to support Centro - at least in that, in the lenders minds, substantial recovery of monies is fundamentally achievable. I suggest, these are hard headed pp who know where their interests lie!

Sure Centro debt is higher than is (probably) prudent in the current environment, however this "environment" is relatively new and came upon Centro within weeks of publishing it 2007 results. No wonder ppl were caught out!

So, in late 2007, with all the market jitters that were around, Centro announced that it was having difficulties refinancing loans - of course the market reaction was predictable - it over-reacted (the SM might be self regulating, but it has never been rational in the short term)! As it has been said many time, over time the SM does "rebalance" and recover, however by then many viable businesses are either lost or never recover to their former heights.

Now to a bear market. Rumour, innuendo, uncertainty, doubt - these are all the "bears" best friend, so if the bear has determined a stock is in fact fundamentally sound, the bear will still buy (at the right price of course - based on fundamentals) - when others are abandoning a stock. The fact that they do so at all is an indication that all is not what it seems! Gee, bears buying, theres a signal for you!

Finally, since your original post is dated today at 10:37AM, you had access to the turnaround yesterday and the comments here and elsewhere that shorters were simply taking advantage of the FUD over Centro. Even so, you still managed to put the above statement in your post, making it sound reasonable, even though the latest evidence, although feeble I admit, would suggest otherwise.

So, by placing that statement at the end of your original post you are basically insinuating that Centro is a stock that is in that category, where "one must consider the short sales as a legitimate reaction to fundamental concerns about the state of the market". Which prompted me to say, given the evidence, "rot".