Joltin,

once again I will highlight your comments in parethesis in order for other readers to follow the conversation. This will be my last post on this subject because as Ankerhoo pointed out, and I agree,  the manipulators are having less and less of an effect. They have become timid in there efforts and this reinforces my belief that they are running out of time and participants in their games.  

( Since the beginning of time all media have political agendas.  Even the Toronto Star is part of that group.  There are "tree hugger" groups in Ecuador opposed to mining.  Soto is in their camp.  His are political views.  This is not manipulation.  If you feel this is manipulation then you must accept that Correas political statements supporting Ecuadorian mining are also manipulation.  I notice you have not mentioned the many price rallies begun based on Correa statements!)

The media since its inseption has always had a business agenda, first it was simply to titillate the the masses so that they would buy the publication. Once it was determined that the masses were easily swayed by the printed word it then also became political. Politics is just another arena in business and the media is a tool used now to sway public opinion on courses of action that is profitable to certain people. 

Soto may very well be a environmental activist ( which in my opinion is just another form of business and most of the activists do not even believe what they preach ). The fact though is that Reuters does not have to print what he writes, especially not his political views since he is not an elected Ecuadorian official holding any type of political office. His facts to date have been either totaly false or very misleading and even forced Reuters to make numerious retractions. I wonder why they kept printing his articles, perhaps it was business of a kind other than that of the publishing variety.

Soto has to eat just like anyone else and when it comes to money eveyone is of the same religion. Soto writing a number of fear mongering articles is not going to change Ecuadors progression towards a mining industry or scare off those mining companies who are working in Ecuador. Therefore what was the point of them and why did Reuters see fit to publish them. Hmmmmmm.

 What they did accomplish was to scared off many retail investors in ARU and to a lesser extent other Ecuadorian mining companies thus reducing there share prices.

Correa making public statements in the act of fulfilling his public office can hardly be described as manipulation if he fullfills or at least makes every attempt to fullfill those policies.

( Let's assume that stock previously closed at $8.  There are "wise guys" or pro traders part of whose job is to watch for these opportunities.  Buyers back away & the pro's know there are stop-loss orders for 20,000 shs. starting at $7.50 & to get to that level they need to hit 15,000 of bids from $7.95 down to $7.50.  So the game is on.  The stock quickly hits $7.50 & the pro's begin to cover their positions as low as possible.  The stock may go as low as $7. & then rebound as the public sees the bargain price.  This is not manipulation but is caused by those using stop-loss orders.  It's called "running the stops" & has always been part of the mkt.  It works best on low volume securities such as ARU. )

I am well aware of how the markets work and the pro's ways of manipulating them. I posted a very comprehensive list of such techniques a while ago and running stop loss orders was on it.  That is why I never use them. However when no opportunity arises for these so called wise guy's to work with. Then they are not above creating it for themselves, just watch Cramers admission to such tactics in his interveiw on how he would spread rumors and such in order to influence the direction of a stock. You can not get anymore clear then that. 

(If funds are a greater portion of ARU that means they have placed buy orders & sat on a moving or stationery bid until complete.)

Of course when there is very little volume and the share price is getting out of range of where these accumilators wish to accumilate at, as occured with ARU a number of times. Then it never hurts if a well timed article or rumour is released onto the puplic forums to rectify that situation hahahaha.

(We all own ARU because we think it has the best value.  That does not make it correct.)

I own ARU because they have by far the best fundimentals of any gold junior out there and it is extremely undervalued with regards to them. While value is subjective, the fundimentals are facts and every company worth will eventually reflect them.  That is why I own ARU. 

( The price of ARU is a function of bids & asks and people buying or selling at the best available price.  The price can only change because no one cares to put in a buy or sell at a specific price. )

So true, however most people are motivated to buy or sell by information that is far from first hand knowledge and generally comes to them through some public forum. These same public forums that we both agreed as being corrupt. 

( As an example take CIBC.  They have orders on ARU arriving from their on-line brokerage, from their instit. dept.  & from their brokers handling numerous discretionary a/c's.  The broker can easily buy or sell 250m in or out of his a/c's.  My point is you have no idea what is really going on on a specific day at CIBC.  Same story for all the majors.  You do know over time that instits. have increased their holdings.  Instits. also deal with small brokers. )

While I agree that for someone to say by looking at one days trades they can say who the players are in any given stock is far fetched. However I never stated any such thing. When you look at the trades over the course of weeks, months and certainly 1.5 years as many of the longs here have and the same 2 or 3 brockerages are constantly involved,  then you can make such statements. 

 ("When a brokerage sells shares back to itself for either a higher or lower price and false articles are planted in the public forums this is crossing the line ethically and legaly.")

( I'm disappointed you would make these suggestions with nothing to back it up but speculation.  99.8% of trade is very legitimate & the .2% does not include ARU. )

Who said I have nothing to back it up with. People lie all the time but mathematics never does. I have done statistical analysis on the probability that a number of  the as you put it speculative occurances could possibly occure. When the odds are that I could grow wings and fly before any of these speculative occurances could happen naturally then to me they are no longer speculation hahahaha.

(I've enjoyed this discussion & am very encouraged by the fact you are receiving so many "thumbs up" by board members & I get a zero.  Do you remember the book "Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds"?  Scary, isn't it?)

I have enjoyed this debate also and am likewise encouraged by the number of thumbs up that I get. It means that I have judged correctly from the posts and links provided by the posters what type of people are left in ARU. Let me just say they are experienced in the real world. 

With regards to the above mentioned book, not much scares me and I am a realist and thus not prone to mass or self delusionment.

Like many things in life there are 2 ways of looking at things, is it us few retail investors who are left in ARU, sticking to what we know or is it the vast majority of retail investors who have sold out because of what they were told the delusional ones.

I will stick to the facts, my knowledge of the industry, plus the fact that 95% of people who invest in the markets lose their money and thus say the vast majority of retails who have sold are in fact the delusional ones.

Afterall the majority of investors must always lose out in order that the minority may make money because the markets are afterall a zero sum end game.  

Regards

F.F.