"Might see me on TV the way things are going. There's money to be made in influencing where the pack goes - a fact of which Stocko's online audience was well aware that night three years ago, as he revealed ASIC's interest. The micro-traders hunt in packs, switching more than $1 billion in and out of hot stocks. For years, the online forums that today claim more than 60,000 members have operated in a legal grey area, servicing an investment community that stretches from tiny investors in Australian country towns to spruikers and sophisticated deal makers in North America and Europe - and includes straw men fronting companies in Singapore, Cook Islands, Monaco, Guernsey and Grand Cayman.ĭay trader gossip is one of the wildest and most volatile factors in Australian securities markets. It was a chilling warning for day traders. The raid on February 11, 2004, was the first time the Australian Securities and Investments Commission had openly moved against a member of an online investment forum since the technology boom. The posting by "Stocko", one of the many online personae used by Melbourne electrical engineer Peter Woodland, produced shockwaves on HotCopper. The discussion thread on HotCopper had been poisonous for weeks, when an exasperated poster electrified the online investment forum: "Arthur dear fellow, yesterday I had two ASIC agents 2 computer experts 3 Federal Police around here looking for anything to do with insider trading. Investors beware: there are few real names and even fewer rules in the high-risk world of online investment forums, writes Neil Chenoweth.
0 kommentar(er)
