A quick update.Insto sellers are still active, having sold...

A quick update.

Insto sellers are still active, having sold roughly 4mill shares so far this month (August). Assuming similar sell volumes going forward, and assuming they in fact want to keep selling, my guess is that they will be out of ETC in 1-2 weeks. Most of the retail selling seems to be coming through Westpac. Most of the retail buying is through Comsec. Total volume so far this month is roughly 9.5mill. Thus, in comparison to last month, insto selling is declining as a percentage of total volume, hence the gradual price rise.

So who is buying? As mentioned, retail comsec users seem to warming to ETC lately. And a further 3.85mill have been bought anonymously, presumably by the top 40 so far this month. (Note that these buyers often use algo trading methods and rarely leave their orders sitting in market depth; so demand for stock is often much stronger than it looks on market depth ).

It is also interesting to note that Lodge partners recently completed some additional due diligence on the China contract. And Lodge, on behalf of sophisticated investor clients, have purchased roughly 1.25mill shares so far this month. However, more noteworthy than this buying is the fact that so far this month Lodge have not sold a single share in ETC. Indeed, including this month and last month, Lodge have bought roughly twice as many shares as they have sold. Evidently, in light of their China due diligence, Lodge is still bullish.

IMO opinion, we are getting close to a major inflection point in ETC. The key catalyst, of course, will be the full year results (especially the fine print).