Wow - nasty sell-off on close, page-23

My feeling is that the dump on Friday could be related to an ETF that is holding rare earth companies and holds Alkane. A quick search reveals that the Van Eck REMX hold more than 8 million shares in ALK.

I know with the gold company ETFs from Van Eck, the GDX and GDXJ, on the third Friday of each quarter the holdings are rebalanced. This is always done in the closing auction and can result in massive price moves in illiquid markets. I assume the REMX is similarly rebalanced each quarter.

http://www.vaneck.com/templates/pagelayout_etf_rwd.aspx?pageid=3971

I've included the holdings from 18/12 below. If you go to the link tomorrow and see the update for the 21/12 I think you'll find the ALK holding reduced by about 600,000 shares.

Just looking at the chart for the last three years I can see volume spikes on the third friday of March, June, September and December on a few occasions.