imbalance, page-8

VVG - respects in return - but I was merely musing about the gross imbalance in the buy/sell market depth, and WHY that is so relentless.

There must be some reason for the massive volume of shares piling into the sell side - we've had over 21 million shares traded today already - and it's only been an hour and a half. Yet the BUY side of the queue has been hovering between 9 and 11 million shares only.

So - SOMEBODY is mopping them up from the sidelines, at the same time that million upon million shares are pouring onto the sell side. That should be encouraging.

but my musings also wondered just WHY the holders of so many shares are selling? After all, we've overcome the legal hurdles that were preventing the LAMP from operating - it's now operational. All the news has been good. So WHY would holders be selling (apart from the REE basket price not doing a lot)?

I'm not talking about smaller retail holders here, either - they are subject to emotion, fear, panic, whatever. No - I'm talking about MAJOR holders - just WHERE are all these shares coming from? With no change in substantial shareholdings being announced?

I am genuinely puzzled - on the one hand we have relentless selling, while on the other we have relentless but sneaky buying. The sellers pour onto the sell side of the queue, but the buyers appear from nowhere - off the queue.

Now you may think this is all conspiracy theory, but what I'm trying to get at is what is behind all this? Is it the SPP? Is the timing a coincidence? We're out of the MSCI Index as of last Friday, so that selling should have stopped. So what other reasons are there for selling? On such a massive scale?

I'm convinced that there is SOMETHING going on behind it all - but we haven't really cottoned onto what it is yet. But there MUST be a reason. And why no change in substantial holdings? Is this all going on just below the 5% holdings level? Surely the turnover would suggest not, but why no announcements lately?

And WHO is it doing all the buying?

The imbalance in the buy/sell queue is really puzzling me, as also is the imbalance between the huge turnover of shares each day, yet the price only moves by a couple of cents. That is churning on a big scale.

Conspiracy theory? Maybe. Puzzled? I sure am. Trying to think of reasons? Yup.... Open to all suggestions.

I suspect we'll find out when it's all too late - as usual.