Thank you for a thoughtful considered reply, this to me is what this site should be about but many seem to want to just bang on about their agenda. That doesn't mean I am in total agreement though.
I am known for having my mind changed with good argument. I agree that we have had a large turnover of shares but that doesn't automatically mean something dodgy is going on. The big end of town can't waste time on a speculative educated "bet" on a share so they play with a rather large ball hoping for a bounce that will. The problem is that normally, this means they DO have an impact on the SP moving up or down due to the volume of the trades.
One of the things many like about VAU is that we are very high liquidity. This also helps keep us in various ASX indexes. Seems nobody has a "solid" formula for how a share gets added or taken from the indexes. Market cap is only 1 aspect used...volatility, liquidity, market cap etc. all contribute in some manner without any published objective formula. We seem to be on many radars because of this.
There has been a large inflow into the Gold ETF arena with outflows this month in the negative for the first time this year.
This has an impact of trading. companies MUST invest in gold and they have had an influx over the last 5 months. Most companies have very tight governance which basically says the currency needs to be working with a small cash position relative to the capital.
Q. if you were running an international Au ETF, where would you likely put that money? I for one would look to a safe domicile with respect for the rule of law. Then look for solid companies.
Of course, they are unable to to buy lots of JM shares so they are looking for value.
We have a long life of mine due to KOTH, cash in the bank and relatively cheap price with little downside. Whats not to like. Other share - for example GMD IMO is over priced right now. Not touching any conspiracy theories as to why except to say that a share is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.
VAU is a liquid share that is trading in a channel currently. This means that end of month balancing (either way) in a position that can be re-entered or moved out of with safety makes us a pretty juicy target.
I for one am happy we are on this high liquidity ride because when things move, I imagine many others watching will jump onboard and exaggerate the price rise.
As has been mentioned on many occasions, if you feel something dodgy is happening, like us all, we have the opportunity to take our REAL evidence to ASIC, they tend to take this sort of thing VERY seriously. I for one feel that sweaty hand Luke is simply hopeless at public engagement which will prevent him from being attracted into much larger companies in my personal opinion and has suffered from the the Peter Principle in this "merger of equals" with the much smarter MW achieving his goals and moving aside after negotiating the formation of a true mid tier gold mining company and putting himself in great position for the future.
I apologise for not proof reading this but hope it offers a different point of view and my reasoning.
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