"Secondly, why can't you stop looking for conspiracies & just accept that 90% of trades in ARU are just brokers executing client orders?The balance are pro traders trying to clip the mkt. for a few cents & program trading. "

I agree with you entirely , but I also find us in the minority on this board. I don't think the manipulation is as big a deal as it is made out to be here.

Everyone wants to pay as little for shares as they can when they are buying stock and get as much as they can when they sell their position.  I like to have "low-ball" buy orders in many times to see if I can get some poor guy dumping stock at "market"....and I sometimes put in high sell prices to see if I can get "a run" where my stock gets taken out.  All of these are done to better my position in the long run.

  I have a hard time believing that a stock broker would buy and sell his own shares to himself as a deceptive practice with the full knowledge and consent of the principals in his or her firm.  I am not saying that it doesn't happen but I don't think it is as bad as it is made out to be here.  With the advent of fast computer trades it is so easy to buy and sell stocks today that you can be in and out of stocks in a few seconds.  There is no doubt in my mind that more manipulation happens with lightly traded stocks and usually ( with the exception of ARU) I stick to stocks that trade in large volumes like AUY( Yamana).  ARU to me is not a trading vehicle but I do move in and out of some at times when I feel it is in it's drifting pattern.

I believe there is more corruption with brokers giving out inside information than playing with hundred lot shares to "make a few pennies" or trying to "drive the price of a stock down" so they can accumulate "cheap shares".  Most stock brokers I have known over the last four decades all have "great information" to relate about certain stocks.  These deal from information from board members and officers to info from the acquisition department. 

All this is JMO and I know it will not change anyones mind!