Member Info for zeusfurla

ros That makes sense to me. Liquidity plus a bit of volatility and the traders/shorters can try to take advantage. Still remains a risky game though.

kevkan I picked up on this too. Eskom finances are in such a disastrous state that they will have no choice but to accelerate carbon reduction activity meaning there is a vested interest in VRFB's working for them and doing so quickly.

We were in this position late last year and just had to sit tight and wait until the MM's ran out of shares from their large seller. We are in the same situation again. Whilst we are, the MM's can play with the sp moving it up and down to maximise their profit. They don't care about BMN, whether it is a great investment or a dud, only what profit they make and what bonus they earn, which can often be based on trade volume. So we see the sp move around a bit sometimes on little or no volume. This used to annoy me greatly as being unfair. That is when I believed that the MM's role was to create a fair and transparent market and provide liquidity. I now know that their sole motive is profit. That means I have changed my behaviour. I no longer get angry, I get patient and stay patient. Once our larger seller(s) is gone and assuming buys continue to outweigh sells as they have most days for the last 6 months (excluding large sellers) BMN sp will re-rate rapidly. It can be stressful to see the value of our shares fall if we need to sell. If we don't need to sell, we just need to learn how to do nothing a bit better and avoid any angst.

The upside to BMN just now is significantly greater than the downside. I have reframed your question in reverse. It doesn't matter who is buying and selling, there is a large seller around just now following our illegal shorting action and that has depressed sentiment in the absence of news. I would encourage everyone to research BMN tonight/tomorrow as if you had just found it on AIM. Would you invest today in BMN? What are the best and worst aspects of this investment. Then compare what you find to your existing investments. That is what rational investors do. I'm not going to repeat all the facts but it is fair to say that downside risk is very low in the medium and longer term. There is nothing that any of us can do about the short-term. DYOR.

uksteveg There is no doubt that a significant and organised short pushed the sp down initially as those who follow the market and this BB will have seen. That has been the subject of the complaint to the FCA. Unfortunately it can take several weeks for these to be investigated. However, there has been significant selling by a MM (probably Cantors) every day since then and it is possible that some or most of that short has been reversed. Trading volumes were just too high and difficult to track to see for sure. What is likely right now is that we are seeing a large sell being sold into the market in a structured way. This is nothing to do with the fundamentals of Bushveld. In the absence of significant news, the normal higher buying volume that we have seen in recent months has been absent, meaning we are seeing downward pressure on the sp. If you remove those large round number sells, it remains the position that there are more buyers than sellers of Bushy stck, as was the case when we traded in the 30p's, which is exactly where we are going in the next month or 2. Good luck all and DYOR.

https://www.miningweekly.com/article/eskom-attributes-load-shedding-free-period-to-improved-plant-performance-2019-04-29

Improvement to load-shedding picture at Eskom although the risk expected to remain for 6-12 months.

Unfortunately my experience with big business is that where corrupt practices may exist in one part of the business it tends to be a widespread and accepted culture throughout the business I suppose it also helps to look at the motivation of companies acting in that way in terms of shareholder and Board interests where Director/CEO performance payments will depend on profit levels. The murky world of business.

MT Agree with your thoughts. We know the company has been looking at acquisitions for a while now and it shouldn't be too long before one is announced. Lot of upside here and low downside risk which will reduce further as other assets come onstream.

Good to see FCA responding to the latest information they received yesterday - 1 day turnaround. Additional content sent today.

Thank you for contacting the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regarding your concerns about the trading of AIM shares in Bushveld Minerals. I appreciate your concern is that there is an organised attempt to lower the price of these shares.

Preventing, detecting and punishing market abuse is a high priority for us. It is important in fulfilling our statutory objectives of protecting consumers, enhancing market integrity and promoting competition. Further information on our approach to market abuse can be found on our ‘Market abuse’ webpage.

What we’ve done with the information received

I’ve forwarded the information you’ve provided to us about what’s happened with the price of Bushveld Minerals' shares to the relevant team.

swansea The FCA responds to emails such as this within 2 working days. That does not mean an investigation will take place within 2 days but it does show how seriously such emails are taken.

50k/100k short reversals I suspect. May be worth keeping a close eye on trading today as it is possible the sp has reached the bottom for now.

Buys exceeding sells today (by quite a margin) as has been the case for several days recently. What this means is that despite considerable shorting activity earlier this week, any shares being sold have been hoovered up by PI's. This is very encouraging and shows that the short is on very shaky ground. Another day like today and the pressure will grow on those shorting. It would appear that the MM's have their own reasons for letting the sp slide this week. I'd prefer excess buys to generate a sp rise but it will come. We have all seen how quickly this share can turn when the MM's decide to push the sp up.

Hold tight - an end to this short is not far away.

From a detailed look at today's trading it would appear that the shorters have not significantly changed their position today - possibly a small number of buys and sells but not materially affecting the large short position in excess of 1m shares built up on Tuesday and Wednesday. That position is still there. This is encouraging and a sign that there is not much gas left in the tank of the short brigade. If they can't feed the short with more sells, which becomes an increasingly risky proposition (and I believe there may be differing views amongst the shorters on this today) then it increase the likelihood of the sp recovering on any serious buying. We had some decent buys today and likely will have more tomorrow.

The fundamentals are the same as this time last week. We are close to a Vametco and production figures update which is likely (although not certain) to improve on Q4 production. I say be brave whilst others are fearful. No debt, huge assets in the ground and a growing bank balance. Where is the risk?

BE Q4 update only 2 weeks ago while last year's Q1 update was a year ago today. Don't think it will be so quick this time around. I recall the testing was 90 days at Eskom so a few weeks to go yet until it is complete.

Sanchez599 Agree that both building a position and shorting are going on right now. A bit of a battle which will only end one way although we can't say exactly when.

It is quite informative to review the first 45 minutes trading today to view an example of shorting activity, likely co-ordinated. As we are aware organised shorting is illegal and part of the remit of the FCA. Although I can't be certain as to motivation, you can see a pattern of 50k and 30k sells which are timed at key points when the support from MM's on the bid is weak and this is pushing the sp down in a strategic fashion. This is a good indicator of shorting activity. It is clear that the 5 trades of this value this morning are co-ordinated and intended to push the sp down.

Just a quick reminder on how shorting benefits shorters. They sell at a higher sp with the intention of buying back at a lower sp - the opposite of normal trading. By timing their sells at points of bid weakness this automatically generates a sp drop. A 50k sell at say 33p which is bought back at 31p makes a profit of 2p x 50k shares ie £1k. Given that over 1m shares are apparently currently being shorted this is big money. Who does this money come from? Well, if the sp stays low after the short has been reversed it comes from holders ie us. This is why the FCA looks so unfavourably on this. In our favour, the FCA has access to information we can't see. By investigating this, they can see who has sold shares over as long a period as they want and they can determine whether there are specific patterns of shorting taking place between individuals. We can't prove this but they can see whether the law is being broken.

Meantime and until this is progressed, our best option is to sit tight knowing that there are large gains to come in Bushveld or (if we can afford it) to top up at these lower prices. What we can also do is be sceptcial of what some individuals post and think why they are posting what they post. Remember a 2p profit on 1m shares equates to £20,000 - a not insignificant sum. And it could be much more than this.

Good luck all and hold tight.

Alfa will have better figures than I given the superior trading analysis used. However, my own figures for yesterday show between 200k-400k excess buys over sells. The uncertainty is due to late day trading where things were moving too quickly to be sure of some trades. Given the larger buys going through we are near to the bottom in my view.

It's worth noting that there has been some significant buying over the last 2 trading days in chunks of over 100k. This looks likely to be a new position being built or an existing position being added to on sp weakness. Approx 1m shares bought yesterday and 650k the day before. This has broadly offset the amount of shares that appear to have been sold by shorters. This should give confidence to all holders to hold tight. This short is not going to work unless significant risk is taken by the shorters - I wouldn't want to be taking that risk for a relatively small reward. There are easier targets.

What's not to like about Bushveld? Still generating cash every day (like last week, last month etc), no debt, single figure PE - all of this even with lower Vanadium prices! When demand picks up again for Vanadium, profit and cash generation will rise even further.

Looking at the huge volume of new year ISA/SIPP trades compared to any other stock I've seen on AIM - it's clear that we only have 1 problem here and that is shorters trying to force the sp down to take your money and make a quick profit.

Watch out for early trades in the first 5 minutes tomorrow, round numbers - 30,000, 50,000 - particularly when packed close together and when selling close to a break point in the share price eg we saw this yesterday at 32p when we had 3 quick sells 40k/30k by shorters to push the bid down to 31.5p. Shorting is our only problem just now - ignore all the negative messages from others, some of whom may be shorting Bushveld (I would never accuse anyone directly). Don't let them part you from your hard-earned shares - you worked hard for these. With no debt and decades of asset value in the ground you can't get a lower risk investment. These are not the Zuma years in SA.Take care all and invest wisely.

Worth reading what posters are saying around the time of the commencement of a concerted short attack - draw your own conclusions as to whose opinions you can trust. And worth recalling that shorting is intended to financially benefit those who take out short positions - at the expense of genuine investors. That is why some posters are given a hard time - they are stealing your hard-earned cash to line their own pockets.

Organised shorting puts downward pressure on the share price but has no reflection whatsoever on the merits of the company being shorted. Bushveld has been and remains a prime target for shorters due to its significant success over the last 2 years and its high profile on the LSE site. Those that are the most successful companies or posters or BB's attract others who want to destroy that success.

Good luck all - this will pass. There are many bed and ISA/SIPP holders who have seen this many times before. I believe that a positive production target at Vametco will reassure investors despite the lower vanadium price - due later this month.