I'm happy to give you some bullet point facts:
1. A XT crossing occurs when the same market participant is on both sides of a trade. This means e.g. CommSec client A wants to sell, Commsec client B wants to buy, the trade matches and it is reported as a XT
2. ASX and participants themselves have controls in place which detect and stop wash trades occurring, so these CXs are 100% legitimate trades between two different parties. ASIC can pick up wash trades ( no change in beneficial owner) very easily
3. Small volume trades are nothing to worry about and really tell us nothing. Instos execute through algo strategies of which the most common are WAP (be it VWAP, TWAP, whatever) - a buy order for 10,000 KDR could be broken down into 100 share lots to trade over the day - at the end of the day the order will get filled for 10000
4. CX and HL are the exchange's (ASX and Chi-X) midpoint dark pool crossing engines. It gives investors a chance to trade at the midpoint of the spread i.e. 2.095 if spread is 2.09/2.10. Both buyer and seller can feel better they got an extra 0.5c. These are dark pools as no-one can see the orders depth (you are in the dark). They are often small volume trades as algos are in use again and people are careful with how much volume they "disclose"
Market manipulation is getting easier and easier to detect with participants really having to step up their surveillance systems and processes, and ASIC having a now well sophisticated system. Manipulation of liquid stocks is very very difficult anyway.
HC is full of posters calling out manipulation left, right and centre, but I know from experience that's very much conspiracy theory stuff
KDR Price at posting:
$2.11 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
