Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Australian shares are being manipulated, say researchers

Market manipulation appears to be rife on the Australian sharemarket when compared to other major markets around the world, according to the country's leading market researchers.
The dramatic price spikes which occur just before the markets close at 4pm – the strongest proxy of market manipulation – are being used to boost bonuses for rogue fund managers, the researchers claim.
The dramatic price movements occur in the last 15 minutes of trading each month, quarter and end of financial year and most likely relate to fund managers ­lifting their trading results which are measured on the key dates.
"They are getting money in all the time but instead of buying it every day they save it and buy it at the last minute to drive more demand," chief executive of the federal ­government-backed Capital Markets Co-operative Research Centre, Michael Aitken, told The Australian Financial Review.
For example, on December 20 last year, $23 million was traded in the last 15 minutes for just three stocks, Village Roadshow, Ocean Gold and REA, most likely delivering a healthy Christmas bonus to the rogue fund managers.
On Friday, $23 million in trading occurred for the same three stocks over the entire day.

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