But tonight i had dinner with a friend that works in the stock market and has been a fund manager,

He explained shorting, naked shorting and some manipulation to me. I talked to him about the venture exchange and these issues and he said the exchange regulates the houses so closely these days that very few would take the kind of risk necessary to manipulate a venture fund.

He did explain to me that there are a lot of houses that sell and buy the same stock within seconds of each other just playing the small swings in price, especially if there are large volumes trading. He also said that on occassion some of these funds are actually paid a very very small fee per share (ie 1/3 cent ) just to buy and sell a stock in order to generate activity. ( ie sell as cannacorp and then buy as annonymous)

I talked to him about the pounding some of our stocks take at end of day and end of month and he said it simply a matter of taking profit, especially if a stock is somewhat volitile and can see a swing of 10-15% in a day. They buy on the way up and then dump at end of day to take thier profit. 10% per day can surely add up over the long run regardless of the price.

His overall impression of the market is that it is still very very tough to make any money and you need some blockbuster news to really move share price in the short term. He said the solid stocks will prove themselves and as always only invest what you can afford to burn.

Don't know if this helps at all but I learned a little bit over a decent steak dinner that he paid for, so I consider myself a winner for today....lol

Storm