hedge funds driving it lower

I will be very brief and frank.

But first my disclaimer: I do NOT hold EITHER a long or short position.


Now my concerns. I have followed the stock for quite a while. They clearly have "issues", but for the SP - after having watched the close - none may be more so then short sold hedge funds manipulating the SP down.

At the start of pre-open, a 1.25mn sell order came on at 53cents. By the end of pre-open, not 1 share of this order was bought.

Large orders such as these are used by hedge funds/group of big private investors to close a stock down by enticing sell orders to drop below it(as happened).

The net result was that the stock closed on the low with overly bearish sentiment.

Regardless of overseas markets tonight, the close doesnt bode well for tmrwm.

I, contray to the thoughts of optistic holders, dont see this manipulation as capping or "buy" designed tactics.

Rather, i see it as simply a method of destroying confidence and dragging the SP lower to increase the value of large shorts held by many overseas hedge funds.

Its no coincidence that they choose to do this on the day that Merrills downgraded the stock. They will try to kill the stock whenever sentiment turns in "their" favour [ie, bearish].

As i said, i dont hold - either on the long, or short side. But i do wish all of you the very best. This is a risky, risky hold that will fluctuate widly.

I hope the company is sucessful in firming up its balance sheet and restoring confidence, but for the short term, the outlook is bleak.

As AFG, MQG, BNB, RRT, REU et all have shown, its just simply very hard to "win" against the big boys who are driving the show [which from what i saw today, is clearly the case]


All the best gents...