UK 19:05 Friday, 23 October 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
As a Sunday entrée we bring you rules 37-39 of the 49 Golden Rules of Making Money from Oil, Gas & Mining Shares, a book published just under a year ago by myself and Ben Turney. To get a free copy of the entire book mailed to you today just fill in the form HERE
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Comments
wildrides
Regarding point 39 ……….. most level 2 trading screens will tell you what trading mechanism is being used on the stock being traded . Obviously low volume AIM lobster pot stocks need a market marker ( a human ) to control the price to form some sort of stable market . This is exactly where the manipulation takes place . Some stocks have individual market makers that seem to run a fair book . Others play all the tricks like sudden spikes down when short of stock , massive spreads when they want a three hour “business lunch” and need to quiet the market . Some will run the price down to gather stock when an RNS is coming with good news ( they get advance notice ) Others just get “tired” towards the end of a very busy trading day and will stall the stock until the next day no matter how many buys seem to come in . The same number of buys in the morning produced sharp rises and now appear not to move the price at all . In the next morning it sets off like a steam train again . We are dealing with humans here and they will make their own life easier where possible . Bear in mind “you have got to be in it to win it” and thus Toms very sound advice not to use stops on MM made stocks .
How ever as we move up out of the lower levels of the casino and volumes are bigger we get electronic trading (SETS) only and also trading with a combination of the two SETS + MM ( the market maker steps in only when volumes are too low for a computer to set a price accurately) . Should you wish to study this there are educational resources on the London Stock Exchange website explaining all this in detail for the purpose of training market makers and others in the workings of the London market . Its a bit dry , but informative . I read through it all many years ago and the old memory aint what it was, but the brief explanation above should be fairly accurate .
in essence :- Sets trading use stops , MM trading dont bother , MM + sets toss a coin !