Hey Ignatius, I have been watching you put in an increasingly valiant effort, along with a few others, to explain what's going on here. Thanks for that.
The way I see it, what's happening with a bunch of genuine longs here is that exasperation with the stagnant stock price has truly set in. Perhaps it was to be expected after being invested for quite a few years. Through persistent suppression over a multi-year period, the hedge funds have succeeded in reversing how some longs appraise the company: by retrofitting its platform and clinical products to the current stock price instead of evaluating the market place to estimate a future value. This entirely defeats the purpose of setting price targets for any company.
There is no question that the existence of HFT is ruining the very foundational principles of what was supposed to be a free market. I really wish people would see level 2 to observe themselves the atrocities and financial vulgarities being committed on this stock (and many others).
I think it's human nature to be despirited when something you are so significantly invested in is under siege for this long. So I understand the frustration that some are expressing here even if I entirely disagree with the conclusions. The platform has proven to be sound, based on current results.
If I have a quibble with the company, it is that they made a judgment and communication error by surreptitiously indicating the AZN trial de-emphasis in the corporate presentation. They also appear to have confirmed the AZN combo trial's discontinuation to phase 3 only to those who had contacted IR (unless I'm wrong about this). This allowed the manipulators to take advantage of retail holders' (perhaps misplaced) expectations about a partnership and subsequent disappointment. But we know that AZN could still potentially be the AXAL monotherapy distribution partner in Europe.
But this one error in no way should have caused a 30% drop. It was just an excuse that the short hedge funds and MMs used to bring the stock down. But the company, in this one instance, may have partly contributed to the fake excuse.
But most importantly, regardless of all the noise, considering how frenetic the trading activity has been over the one month I see some very good news on the horizon. We'll see.
