As a trader of long experience, may I offer some thoughts on...

As a trader of long experience, may I offer some thoughts on recent trading on SSC. To declare my position from the outset, I hold this stock.

I don't believe this is accumulation. Here are my reasons for this assumption.

The volumes over the last week or so are relatively small, comparative to its peers in the small cap arena.

The sell into the bid price is calculated and small and occurs at precise times. Taking today for example, when it looked like .029 could take a dominant position, a small amount was sold into 028. Yesterday, when 028 looked likely, 027 was sold into.

I don't believe these are accumulating positions. Rather, I believe these are traders working the 2 clicks system.

Big traders make money on 1 and 2 click spreads on popular stocks. They trade on reactionary and emotional trades from novices who follow how their stock is travelling every minute of every day. If they panic, they sell even if at a loss.

These big traders decide a price for a stock they wish to trade. Algorhythmic trading platforms (bot) then sell above and below that decided price to ultimately reach the average price, ie. the trader's decided price. One or two clicks on 2, 3 or 10 million shares in a day is a handy profit.

They will sell into themselves, pick up other panicked sellers shedding at that price then place a new trade at a click higher. They sell some at the higher price then do it all over again to pick up the panic buys as the bot caps and reduces the price. That's how the system works.

As soon as an interloper, like you or me, intervenes with a proper trade, the bot system immediately redetermines what needs to be done to return to the status quo. That is, what the traders have already determined the price will be.

You cannot beat bot trading. Yes, it's unethical and contrary to a free market. But the ASX and ASIC turn a blind eye to its existence.

Recent SSC trading is all bot. PXS is all bot trading. There are many more examples littered throughout the ASX.

The easy way to spot bot trading is to look at the individual volumes and look for concurrent last three numbers. When you see lots of trades ending in the same three numbers, for example, 14,358, 2,358, 21,358 you know it is bot trading.

Another example of bot trading is seeing trades of 1. You and I cannot trade 1 share. But a bot can. And it retains its position in the queue. Ahead of you.

Bot trading will not let a stock soar by market sentiment as this does not allow the trader to work within a defined price bracket.

There are two ways to beat bot trading. One is, if you had enough spare cash you could buy into 3 lines of the buy side in a huge volume, enough to make the bot go haywire. It will immediately retrace further up the sell line. It does this in microseconds, even before your trade is processed.

This sudden buy surge might also make the trader feel a little intimidated.

The second way to beat bot trading is for the ASX and ASIC to outlaw it. Don't hold your breath for this to happen.

Bot trading is keeping the system afloat for big players in a bad market and the ASX and ASIC aren't going to stop their mates from making squillions with something as petty as regulation.

This is not meant as trading advice, more an outpouring of disgust at our 'free market'.

I know a few traders and they seem to be nice young blokes. Too naive to know the havoc they are creating on behalf of their greedy clients and unsavoury bosses.

Larry