robhaywood...In thyese sorts of "grey areas", I think you will...

robhaywood...

In thyese sorts of "grey areas", I think you will find the ASX will place a fair degree of weight on the intent of the actions.

I can think of several genuine reasons why someone might place a large buy or sell bid (above or below the last traded price), during the closing or opening auctions;

1. To be first in the queue should a large buyer or seller need to complete a specific buy volume for example, or perhaps finalise an exit from a position, prior to the close. This is actually quite common with high-volume traded stocks where many are using other peoples money (ie, using t+3 money)...where they often have no choice but to sell at whatever price they can get if they don't have the funds to settle.

2. Then there are changes in circumstance after the order is placed; if for example you decided to take a large line at the close because you thought the selling was finished at a certain level...but, after you place your buy order an even larger line came in to match your position (clearly suggesting there is still hidden volume you may not have considered)...I see nothing wrong with cancelling your order in this situation. Interestingly, the seller may also change/cancel his order as a result...now that he will not get his fill as expected.

It may look like manipulation, but it is just normal market forces.

I can also think of genuine reasons for placing an order with say 8888888 as the volume; it might be a lucky number for someone, or it may round up an existing postion of 2222222?

I cannot however think of genuine reasons for putting such orders in the market (or any orders for that matter), and take them in and out of the depth all day...over and over...or using orders for bid stacking that are not genuine buy/sell orders. I also cannot see a genuine reason for placing any order, then spreading rumours about it (or even just mentioning it), in order to generate discussion and/or potential interest.

I am pretty sure the ASX would view the latter as having dubious intent.

Cheers!