Blatant Manipulation

[trans]

This is about as unnatural trading of a stock you can experience.  Whose funds are trading back and forth and driving this stock into the ground?

[jft310]

This to will end. All we need is the news.

[sfiaes]

How much bad news is in the stock? Early morning sell off on light volume. How many times have we seen this? I’m thinking people are concerned that no agreement will be reached with the NEC by Friday and the sell down will get kicked into 2013. Institutions may be waiting to buy on the bad news of a delay, if there is one. I continue to be amazed at how quite the PNG press has been concerning the negotiations. I remain of the opinion that “no leaks” equals good news.

[admin]

Well, the good news is that if PNG is indeed going to take half of E/A for nothing, that should really be priced in by now

[tarulestheday]

This is about as unnatural trading of a stock you can experience.  Whose funds are trading back and forth and driving this stock into the ground?

Shorts have controlled IOC for at least a month. 9 million short shares and the ability to drive it down 3-5% on a few hundred thousand shares. The problem is that no one is stepping in to support it right now.

[kkozkkoz]

After the close today we will once again get a snapshot of the non naked short interest as of 11/15.  It will be interesting to see if the short interest went up while the price went down.  The 14th was a big down day for IOC.

[bertl05]

This is about as unnatural trading of a stock you can experience.  Whose funds are trading back and forth and driving this stock into the ground?

Shorts have controlled IOC for at least a month. 9 million short shares and the ability to drive it down 3-5% on a few hundred thousand shares. The problem is that no one is stepping in to support it right now.

Could go on for a while I'm afraid. I dont see much support here at this level.

[bam]

Yes there are shorts out there spinning their views, just like we are on the long side.  Please don't cry manipulation every time the stock goes down - that's not how the market works.  If this is such an aggregious price, then buy some more and consider it a gift.  Bottom line is that until we get news, the stock is going to bleed lower.  Most people (including myself) misjudged the time needed to get this situation settled - so most are already in full positions and don't have much appetite to add more here.  You can't blame shorts for everything.  Most IOC longs are just as culpable for this selloff because they got full sized too early and didn't take off much risk when the stock spiked in the 90's.  This stock is so incredibly thin right now, it doesn't take much energy to move it up or down.  It's going down a few hundred shares at a time. This is not short "manipulation". This is longs crying about shorts and not stepping up to buy the stock.  This will all get worked out one way or the other.  The path the stock takes here until we get a resolution is completely irrelevant.  If a move from 65-55 is causing people that much pain, your size is too big.  If there were true buyers of the stock right now, the shorts would be helpless - 100k shares to buy would move this stock up $5 here.  I've been in loads of these situations before and this is just how it goes.

[trans]

This is about as unnatural trading of a stock you can experience.  Whose funds are trading back and forth and driving this stock into the ground?

Using intraday on balance volume (accumulation/distribution)  Here's what I'm observing:

11:00 a.m. 57.50 distibution from open -16,500

11:00 to 11:36 a.m. 58.0  accumulation +41,500

11:36 to 12:31 pm  57.08 distribution -34,756

12:31 pm to 12:40 pm  accumulation net +56,956  Shares accumulated today so far, price down - $ 1.88

Now can u see how they can make price go down , while actually accumulating shares?

This is a combination computer trading back and forth, likely with algos

[Gator]

It is not manipulation, it is selling. There is a motivated seller of InterOil stock right now. Maybe it is Susquehanna. I noticed last quarter they added over 800,000 shares. They do a lot of complex options as well, so they were also long and short lots of puts and calls. With the option premiums collapsing, maybe they are unwinding.

Maybe someone is finally getting tired of “soon”. Three years ago (2009) on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, IOC stock broke $60 (on the upside) for the first time. Three years with a losing record will get you fired as a football coach in most leagues.