Thank you for posting that link with associated YouTube video....

Thank you for posting that link with associated YouTube video. Anyone who watches it will further appreciate how opaque the whole short selling phenomenon is. But what also comes out is the grass roots movement in Canada to stop short selling that they say is having a serious negative impact on mining investment in that country.

I have been thinking about the recent rallies in some of my stocks. Despite a few indications of sentiment moving in their favour (eg spodumene pricing), I feel there remains about the same risk as before to the downside bearing in mind the upcoming selling season and commissioning phase at Kathleen Valley. I can't see any single factor that supports a widespread rally. I'm probably wrong but I wonder if coincident with Albanese's play for a resurgence in Australian manufacturing, the ASIC has been having "discussions" with parties involved in share trading activities like brokers and ASX about short selling? If that was the case it might be that they have got the wind up and decided to reduce the negative investment activity. If that were true, I guess we would be seeing a fall in the percentage of shorts (which we are not really).

Now we also have more comment today about changes to policies, and in the budget, for pro manufacturing and pro net zero transition industries. I just heard the Treasurer ("Insiders" on ABC) emphasise that the measures are to be broad based and he specifically mentioned FIRB policy reform. What does broad based mean? Could it include an ASIC investigation of short selling of stocks in these industries?

I recall that after the AGM, Tim Goyder and Tony Ottaviano in conversation referred to their market intelligence revealing that the bulk of shorting in LTR was coming from Hong Kong based hedge funds. Earlier in 2024, there was the kind of "summit" held with various battery mineral industry heads (TO was there I think) and the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources, Madeleine King. Feedback I read was that there was a push for more controls on short selling among a much broader agenda.

Could the fall in turnover for LTR be related? If so, it doesn't seem to be happening to PLS. According to my calculations, the LTR average daily turnover for the last 6 days is 10.61m shares. When I go back over the trading history, there hasn't been one day with trade below that number since January 15 during the holiday period. I also think there has been significantly less ChiX trade compared to usual. I wonder if I'm onto something?

It's just a theory and of academic interest if not true, but I do think it's worth listening to that video link associated with the post by @Aspear

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=shared&v=AvI1H0IsHnM

I'm also looking forward to hearing a lot more from government about these policy changes because they can't help but be a positive for LTR investors imo.

regards

DF

PS If ppl listening to the video like me want to know what "short exempt" refers to, I found the following link helped me a bit.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shortexempt.asp