read the parers

hey guys I've just come back from knee replacement surgery
and i wasn't able to read hot copper for about 5 days!

this is what they are doing to fmg!
but they'll get theirs soon!

IRON ore tycoon Andrew Forrest is under attack from international hedge funds in a co-ordinated short-selling blitz against his Fortescue Metals Group -- a campaign that has caused the company's stock, and the executive's paper fortune, to slump by more than 37 per cent in just over a month.
The company's broker, Southern Cross Equities, has sent a note to clients that leaves no doubt as to why it considers the stock has fallen: "FMG shares have been subject to an aggressive and co-ordinated shorting campaign from a high of $13.15."

The stock went as low as $7.91 on Tuesday but by Thursday had rebounded to a $8.70 close on a day of particularly heavy trading, with 45.5 million shares going through.

Then the price fell 43c on Friday after the temporary stranding of an ore carrier in the Port Hedland shipping channel -- a problem rectified at high tide.

The Australian has separately confirmed from reliable sources that several overseas hedge funds are short-selling Fortescue shares, mostly on the basis that they consider Southern Cross's prediction of a continuing shortage of iron ore in the world in 2013 to be too optimistic.



The short sellers declined to be identified.

Shorting involves selling shares that traders have borrowed, but do not own, with a view to buying "back" the stock at lower prices later.

Charlie Aitken, head of institutional dealing at Southern Cross and a long-term champion of the stock and its founder Mr Forrest, says in a client note that during the volatile period "absolutely nothing changed fundamentally for FMG".

"If anything, the fundamentals got stronger," he said, pointing to the fact that Chinese steel mills had agreed to pay Fortescue a partial freight rate differential for Australian iron ore.

He notes three possible reasons for the short selling: one, that cargoes had allegedly not been up to standard; two, that there would supposedly be problems in raising further debt to expand the project; and three, that there could be a global iron ore surplus as early as 2010.

"The key reason given for the shorting of FMG is an unfounded market rumour that initial cargoes of FMG ore have not been up to the specification expected by the Chinese mills," he adds. "That is absolute rubbish in my opinion."

Read the full report in The Australian