Who knows Papa,
They probably won't stop, as STX with still be in the ASX 300 and MSCI Microcap index, but I'd expect the volumes will fall.
Just looked at a few other companies around the same size.
COE with around the same market cap and share price has far lower volumes, for example.
So, you'd expect the total pool of funds flowing through STX through bots would decrease.
Some might argue this will reduce liquidity, but I will be happy to be able to look at the buy/sells again, and draw some conclusions about actual supply and demand (i.e. like a real market).
Just trying to make sense of the last two days of trading after a company-shifting announcement on Monday:
I wish the Shortman data didn't have such a big lag. I have a sneaky suspicion there will be another large volume day today or tomorrow, most likely after-market, as brokers/shorters finally close out their short positions for the MSCI exit (after pushing the VWAP down the last couple of days).
The reason is
on entry in the MSCI Smallcap Index (announced Feb 9, 2023, and effective 28th February) it seems funds were still buying for the rebalancing a couple of weeks after the effective date. This whole period saw a strong runup in the price with little market-shifting news in this period (aside from some minor Walyering updates). This would also suggest that funds/brokers continued buying until they have fulfilled the requirements of the index funds in the weeks after the effective dates.
Logic would suggest the reverse process must now happen. i.e. we need to see an equivalent reversal of those volumes before the MSCI small-cap index
exit is complete, and brokers/shorters close out their positions by purchasing the index funds' stock (presumably through some pre-arranged call option linked to the VWAP).
I'm not sure if the MSCI process is complete or not (this is not announced), but given the last two day's intense selling, I wouldn't be surprised if it's still ongoing. And then we have to work through the potential ASX 200 exit, as well.
(20min delay)