Fearless

Since the beginning of time all media have political agendas. Even the Toronto Star is part of that group. There are "tree hugger" groups in Ecuador opposed to mining. Soto is in their camp. His are political views. This is not manipulation. If you feel this is manipulation then you must accept that Correas political statements supporting Ecuadorian mining are also manipulation. I notice you have not mentioned the many price rallies begun based on Correa statements!

We know every trade has a buyer & a seller & the money exchanged is equal (+/- a commission). If there is bad news on a company when mkts. are closed, the next morning will see a down opening. Let's assume that stock previously closed at $8. There are "wise guys" or pro traders part of whose job is to watch for these opportunities. Buyers back away & the pro's know there are stop-loss orders for 20,000 shs. starting at $7.50 & to get to that level they need to hit 15,000 of bids from $7.95 down to $7.50. So the game is on. The stock quickly hits $7.50 & the pro's begin to cover their positions as low as possible. The stock may go as low as $7. & then rebound as the public sees the bargain price. This is not manipulation but is caused by those using stop-loss orders. It's called "running the stops" & has always been part of the mkt. It works best on low volume securities such as ARU.

If funds are a greater portion of ARU that means they have placed buy orders & sat on a moving or stationery bid until complete. Nothing mysterious here. Public selling, large a/c's buying!! Large a/c's don't generally own penny stocks so the public takes out a nice profit. Score one for the public!!

We all own ARU because we think it has the best value. That does not make it correct. One of the recent Bank analyst write-ups had ARU included with a group of junior golds. We only hope we're right.

The price of ARU is a function of bids & asks and people buying or selling at the best available price. The price can only change because no one cares to put in a buy or sell at a specific price. I think this is all covered in my 1st 2 paragraphs.

My point about the PA sale is to counter your suggestion that a bogeyman holds the price down enabling others to accumulate cheap stock. Because of the low volume of ARU most often a large order has to sit on the bid or offering to complete same. Some folks on this site thought he gave away a large amount of money at $7.75. That was the mkt. for a large block.

As an example take CIBC. They have orders on ARU arriving from their on-line brokerage, from their instit. dept. & from their brokers handling numerous discretionary a/c's. The broker can easily buy or sell 250m in or out of his a/c's. My point is you have no idea what is really going on on a specific day at CIBC. Same story for all the majors. You do know over time that instits. have increased their holdings. Instits. also deal with small brokers.

"When a brokerage sells shares back to itself for either a higher or lower price and false articles are planted in the public forums this is crossing the line ethically and legaly."

I'm disappointed you would make these suggestions with nothing to back it up but speculation. 99.8% of trade is very legitimate & the .2% does not include ARU.

I've enjoyed this discussion & am very encouraged by the fact you are receiving so many "thumbs up" by board members & I get a zero. Do you remember the book "Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds"? Scary, isn't it?

Regards

Joltin