Market discipline - less talk, more action needed

HOW widespread is price rigging, manipulation and insider trading in the local stock market? It depends on who you ask.

At one extreme is the view that "everything is fixed", ie, there's lots going on every day as parties with vested interests in various stocks or indices indulge in price fixing, price setting, manipulation or whatever verb you might think is appropriate to describe such activities.

At the other extreme is the view that regulators simply do not have the time or resources to police every single contravention of the rules, so as long as transgressions are kept to an acceptable minimum, things should be allowed to proceed as per normal. This is a pragmatic view of the issue and it holds a lot of validity since regulators cannot realistically investigate every single odd occurrence in the market.