Pro Traders article posted by "mmwda" todayThis evening I thought I would have a look at the bullboard forum for Constellation Copper. I am positive that Northern has a substantial interest in CCU. Lo and behold I was enlightened by reading through a posting by "mmwda". Below is his posting copied from the CCU forum. What caught my eye was his explanation by such traders to block a rise in the price of the shares by placing a block of stock sufficient enough to eliminate the price of the shares rising. Actually, this is what happened to Northern today, when 200 lots were placed on the ask price at $1.30 mid morning. Shortly after trading begain this morning, a poster on the Northern forum had shown us that there was very little stock at the various prices on the ask. Then all of a sudden 200 lots appeared at the asking price of $1.30. Personally, I realized what was happening and judged for myself, at that time, that the future trades in the day would be at lower prices and that did happen.
Here is the posting from the Constellation Copper forum:
In the USA , as I mentioned the "specialists " were fined what amounted to a huge individual fine each. The public in general will not see a lot of commentary or publicity in this type of fraud. In Canada we have PRO Traders aka market makers. Each listed stock has at least one PRO. His primary purpose is to keep a bid and ask at all times. In thinly traded stocks he is often the buyer (bid) and seller(ask). As you can see he has total control of the price. He ( or she) can have or trade for several accts. ( called nominee or segrated accts.) In many cases they do not pay commissions. I myself rarely trust the " market depth" as it is usually the pro who inserts what he wants . I mentioned that when you see a huge sell order in the M D you can (often) be sure the price will not exceed this price . It can also be a large bid which acts as a support price. I have often seen cases where I believe the PRO was asleep at the wheel as it were. In only a few trades the stock XMC recently rose by a substantial amt . Shortly after the price was erased way down to a previous low. There was no obvious justification for this type of activity. In many cases the PRO can stop a rally by inserting a large sell and simply sell down from this price ( even short sell) . The buyers soon lose enthusisim when they always see the lower bid price and the stock goes nowhere. Back a few years ago now I had a stock cob.a . The company had taken over another company and the 3rd Q report showed a huge gain . The buyers were there but the price did not advance beyond 2.45. I surmised the reason for this was that the insiders ( all the crooks) wanted time to load up and the price would advance with the year end report. I also said the price would drop below 2.00 and I would buy then. I was correct in both cases. The stock did advance but unfortunately I sold at about 5.00/sh. It went to a high of 26.00./sh over the next 2 yrs. ( and back to 3.00 now)
My point is that PRO traders set the prices, on a daily basis. They decide when they will create a strong advance. If their is news to justify it helps but not necessary. Whos going to complain when the price shoots up. Pros can create strong activity when ever they want. Unfortunately here in Canada we have no one to complain to when they stagnate a stock for long periods. This stock would have easily advanced to well over 2.00 by now. All the reasons anyone gives are just what I call the insider "alibies" . I can give many examples of this .I am writing a book called "Bay St Casino" it is primarily about the company Aecon , previously armbro. this stock was suppressed for years so it could be privatized. After so long the clots behind the fraud screwed the deal. We now have what the company calls " Canadas largest publicly traded const. company" with a market cap of only 160mil. They brag at the meetings that one of their assets is worth over 200 mil. This represents about 10- 15% of the whole company. They have just got 2 contracts worth over 400 mil ( one of which they will have equity in) and the stock has lost almost 2.00/sh since the 7.00 buy out bid offer (7.00/sh) was rejected as too low. It is an insult to all Canadians that we have to put up with this type of fraud.Our regulators do nothing.