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Microcap & Penny Stocks : TGL WHAAAAAAAT! Alerts, thoughts, discussion. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe Copia who wrote (51426)	6/15/2000 2:59:00 PM
From: Jim Bishop	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 150070

Check this out: otcnn.com I'm A Market Maker, I Can Do Whatever I Like? By Jack Burney 06/15/2000 10:15 AM CST (This is the fifth in a series of articles about secret market maker manipulation of OTCBB stock prices, and the need for a rule to require full disclosure of short positions in OTCBB stocks. Click on the following links to read the other articles: Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4 . If you know of such instances of MM suppression of stocks, please tell us the story at jburney@otcnn.com) According to a Raging Bull poster that uses the alias DJ8, Symphony Telecom International, Inc. (OTCBB: SYMY) Chairman and CEO Gilles A. Trahan recently wrote a letter (which DJ8 posted online) that expressed his frustrations at getting answers to questions he had about perceived irregularities in the trading of his company?s stock. In that letter Trahan apparently got a startling response from Gerry Rosen of Market Maker J. Alexander Securities (ALEX). Rosen?s direct response to Trahan?s inquiring telephone calls was ?I am a market maker, I can do whatever I like and I don't have to tell you my position.? Unfortunately, Rosen is telling the absolute truth. And, that?s what is terribly wrong in the OTCBB investing business. Under present rules, a market maker CAN do whatever he likes to an OTCBB stock, and he doesn?t have to tell you his position, because he isn?t required to disclose his short positions or his buy-sell ratios, only the volume he did last month. The alleged suppression of Symphony stock by market makers was uncovered in yesterday?s article. In the above scenario, the market maker was simply stating his SEC/NASD-given right to manipulate OTCBB stocks as he pleases, because he doesn?t have to account to anyone. That?s not the case with stocks listed on the major exchanges ? short position disclosure is required for them. Trahan reports about his attempt to call Rosen at ALEX in a letter to Symphony?s Raging Bull message board. The entire letter can be read by clicking on the following link: ragingbull.com . OTC News Network has verified that the letter was indeed written by Mr. Trahan. ?Mr. Rosen was very upset by my call,? wrote Trahan, ?hanging up on me after my introducing myself and stating that I understand ALEX is shorting SYMY. Upon calling him back I was told ?I am a market maker, I can do whatever I like and I don't have to tell you my position.? I have personally never seen a stock get beat up like this on a small cap company announcing acquisitions and a $100 million funding, but of course that is just my opinion. In the meantime the company is exploring all legal avenues and will act accordingly.? One eloquent defender of the market makers charged that Symphony is ?very weak financially. In addition this company has an untried technology that sounds a bit bogus.? He said Symphony will have to ?sell 10-million shares? to obtain its $100-million financing and this is what has driven the stock down. Point taken, but others think a firm with $100-million to build a business upon is positioned to grow. The MM defender also said that ?for the so called traders of SYMY to make such a big deal out of that makes them out as amateurs as well.? So, it?s okay to screw investors if they are ?amateurs?? That?s the arrogant, stock-snob attitude Rosen expressed, and he probably speaks for all those MMs who are excessively shorting stocks. The solution is to stop the arrogant manipulation of stock prices by imposing the same disclosure rules on OTCBB stock as now apply to NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX stocks. Then market makers will have to do ?whatever they please? in the cold light of public scrutiny, and that?s a different scenario altogether. Section 15A(b)(6) of the Securities Act says that the rules of a national securities association must be designed, among other things to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices and to protect investors and the public interest, and perfect the mechanism of a free and open market. Section 15A(b)(11) requires that association rules be designed to produce fair and information quotations, and to prevent fictitious and misleading quotations. How many market makers run businesses that are contemptuous and in violation of the letter and spirit of the Act? Meanwhile, the beat goes on, and OTC News Network is flooded with complaints about market maker manipulation ? ?MMM? ? all of which will be dealt with in this series as time and space permit. (Tomorrow, the series will report on a SEC investigation of market makers.)