Ayala Pharmaceuticals Inc (ADXS)

[tinfoillurker]

First mover advantage has a lot to do with it, I think. They bought a huge chunk of the company for cheap and then ran the price up. Running the price up protected their top dog position by making it too expensive for other entities to establish a position of comparable strength. To make matters worse, any entities that DID try to do so were shorted into relentlessly through the middle of 2015. They were fighting an uphill battle from the outset.

Once both long and short positions were established, they had options to act in either direction as needed. They never needed to use the long shares, but I wonder if they exercised the July warrants ages ago instead just to keep their activity under wraps. I recall seeing in one of the financial statements (maybe a year or two ago?) that warrants had been exercised. Without the current context I didn't think much of it, though I found it bizarre enough to make a mental note. I don't remember the quantity.

I don't doubt they're playing dirty with insider info, but I don't think it was necessarily "required". More concerning, I think they have the BOD/CEO's ear and the BOD/CEO are complying with requests.