Magic moment:
The prices on BTCT & Bitfunder crossed streams @ 0.00167!1!
Can you explain that? Is this natural or market manipulation?
I can try, but take this with a grain of salt -- i'm not a professional trader & don't want this to be treated as advice.
That said...
The initial price disparity on the exchanges is much more interesting than what we're seeing now. The shares represent identical underlying assets, identical stakes in the company's success, and pay out identical dividends. Why should their price differ across exchanges?
Day traders are a possible reason. Shares have value beyond the underlying asset they represent -- they're also valuable as game tokens. Speculators bet on how desirable these tokens will become in the future *to other speculators*, who are, in turn, playing the same guessing game. The shares still have their underlying asset -- they simply have another, purely speculative value superimposed.
Burnside's gametable was hot after the IPO, and Bitfunder's wasn't.
As unreasonable exuberance vanished, and greater fools were no longer lining up to buy into the game, the share value began deflating to the actual worth of the underlying asset, which is (obviously) the same on both exchanges. Ken also promised that the shares will receive .0025 in dividends before ... other stuff
, so if ActM is actually going to make money, buying the shares @.0025 is a no-brainer. The fact that the shares are currently below .0025 is a reflection on the overall lack of confidence in ActM.
If this is unclear, i'll try again.
Edit TL;DR: What's happening now is closer to what you would see if ActM stock was traded based on its underlying value. Unless confidence in ActM completely vanishes, don't expect the spread to grow.