Well, if you put it all together and start joining the dots, it...

Well, if you put it all together and start joining the dots, it does start to take on a semblance of a contrived 'market manipulation'.

It looks like someone may have been involved with this exercise for several weeks. Could easily have been done by a savvy operator on the lookout for these types of scenarios.

1. The LSE/AIM have been market maker for OEX for some time - easy to see. So if these markets can be moved it would trigger a reaction on the ASX.

2. Beat-up report in the UK version of Pro-active Investors supposedly triggers the British Bulls sell recommendation the next day - neither of these found their way into the Aussie versions of these web sites.   The journo appears to be either exceptionally insightful and actually knows something, in which case who is their source - sounds sus. Or else he's making it up - his opinion, you can't be hanged for that.

3.  OEX holders are tense going into the fracc stage - general observation, any dill could see from OEX's track record over recent years.

3. Two weeks ago a surge in bids, with some v/large bids, just off the money - to bulk out the buy side?

4. Then suddenly overnight these v/large bids disappear and equivalent v/large sell orders appear on the opposite side of the ledger, giving the appearance of a massive shift in sentiment.

All I'm saying is that, if viewed with suspicious eyes - it looks like it could be a well coordinated shorting exercise.

Regardless of whether my suspicions hold water or not, I'll be holding until I know for sure what is going.  

I guess we could shoot off an email to the company asking for their reaction to the article.