Whomever is selling may be whomever is buying, plus the worn out...

Whomever is selling may be whomever is buying, plus the worn out retail holders.

Our horizon is not Ron's horizon, he will hold his shares forever. Retail holders will hold until tax time or they are close to being back in the green.

Yes, I believe Lauder's broker is exactly how you describe. The ASX is thinly traded in terms of number of actual transactions regardless of volume, its easy to turn a stock direction when interest is low. So continually push a small number of shares on the sell side, retail sheep follow in the sell because "the market" wants out, then scoop up more than you sold on the buy side, repeat. Simples, and done with very little investment.

Even on good news, not a lot of turnover needed to make it look "turdish", and the guys who jumped in get out quick when it turns south, more shares for the accumulator.

The only thing that can change this is for news to be so good the interest overwhelms the method of the accumulator. And who controls the narrative and news here? You need to keep interest, but dont make it too good until you are ready to go. That's when you have enough shares.