I'm not a chartist, but sometimes I wonder about the SOI thing...

I'm not a chartist, but sometimes I wonder about the SOI thing too.

ive never really understood this to be honest. To me an $800m mcap company with 8 billion shares and an $800m mcap company with 800 million shares would still have the same dollar value traded?

Let's take your example to an extreme. Pretend the $800 mcap company has only EIGHT (8) shares, and only 8 shareholders. Most of them are stuck in their ways, hanging in for the long haul. One shareholder would love to buy more shares, but there's only ever about 1 shareholder who wants to sell from time to time. There's no way this exchange can happen that isn't fair and reasonable. It's a good company and every shareholder knows their holding is increasing in value. Now, suppose the person (say a man) trying to buy wants to trick the others into believing the SP is lower than true value. He has an idea about using 2 brokers, so he can buy and sell to himself at the price he would like to buy from the other holders. This trick won't work because the fellow is too large a shareholder to go unnoticed, so his plan would be discovered. Therefore, the SP remains fair value, and quite stable.

In the case of the $800 mcap with 8 billion shares, suppose a very small minority of holders are regular traders. When the volumes traded are low, 'the man' sets up ways to buy and sell to himself, either legitimately as a 'market maker' or otherwise, such as setting up multiple accounts to trade with himself. He uses the latest technology to accomplish this. Because there are 800 million shares on issue, he can execute many small daily trades. He might try to create an artificial price ceiling. He uses this opportunity to slowly accumulate extra shares at this price.

I always hoped technical analysis could identify market manipulations by paying close attention to the relevant daily market data. Presently the VWAP is 11 cents, a price that has been the same for 2 weeks according to one poster. And the volumes have been low. To me, that is very suspicious. Either we are being fooled into thinking the price will pop, or the price WILL pop. IMO, I think the fundamentals are about to shine through the clouds.

Just my naive views.