You appear to be 100% correct in some respects. In order for manipulation to flourish there must first be excessive public participation. We had all of that and more in September of 2007. Noront hitting a fantastic pocket was the catalyst for all that followed.
Public activity was no different in the Ring of Fire plays compared to cabbage patch dolls, beanie babies or any other hot area plays. Some companies do well in new area plays but for the most, it's hasta la vista.
In the case of Probe, the short manipulators won't be happy until the shares are basically worthless in market price. We hope this pressure soon ends.
Market history is such that major highs are made with a rhino's horn advance on expanding volume and major lows are made usually on lengthly rounding bottoms joined with contracting volume. The amount of time taken in covering shorts is far greater than selling short on explosive public supported advances. One could say that the public is easy prey.
We all know what has happened. The market share price got severly disconnected from the optimism of participants on this board, including myself. I have had thoughts that Agoracom.com was created to expand the train loads of sheep that would be hauled off to market. Although I know this to be wrong, the short sellers have used these forum pages as if they were set for that purpose.
The perspective on history is far simpler looking at what took place as opposed to reaching into the future on what might be. I along with others forecast what might be and feeling the comfort of the group took my eye off the ball.
Keeping your eye on the ball is sort of like playing the devil's advocate. This is monitored by comparing the share price of any security to its technical environment, its chart. In the end, we will have all made our fair share of mistakes in life. So what, we gather up the pieces and we move forward with our new knowledge of what not to do next time or just, be more careful.
Unfortunately for all of us, the Canadian regulators failed the public as they were suppose to protect us. An outsider could fairly easily assume that the regulators were part of the scheme to defraud shareholders by allowing the naked short sellers to run wild.
Recently, I forwarded a copied piece by Mr. Jim Sinclair concerning all this lawlessness and his plan to stop it through the creation of a chamber of mines representing past financially injured shareholders to David Palmer. It is my wish as a shareholder that Probe Mines joins in the fight.
Can we learn from our mistakes? Yes, we can. In the past we have been trained to buy into a company, hold it and wait for the profits. I think we should all take a good look at, for future benefit, "when and how to sell stocks." It takes a well trained mind to weigh buying and selling as equal parts to successful investing. Unfortunately, we all errored by being absorbed with buying and holding with little consideration being given to playing the devil's advocate which may have lightened our load along the way or gotten us out, completely.
Good luck to all.
