Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

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The #1 reason why AVXL is so volatile: Small Float

"A stock with a small float will generally be more volatile than a stock with a large float. This is because, with fewer shares available, it may be harder to find a buyer or seller. This results in larger spreads and often lower volume." https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/floating-stock.asp

And this effect is magnified when longs keep shares off the market for months or years at a time.

"Authorized" shares are the total number of shares the company may issue.
"Outstanding" shares are the shares already issued.
"Restricted" shares are issued shares that can't legally be traded for a while, typically held by company managers.
"Float" shares are calculated as Outstanding - Restricted shares. This is the float that is reported publicly.

However, there can be many other shares that are held off the market by long investors, and each share held by longs effectively reduces the true float below what can be calcualted from publicly available data.

I and others bought shares by the thousands and tens of thousands back in early 2015, when the PPS was at its lowest. Many others have bought and held significant numbers of shares since then. Based on private communications among many longs, the total number of shares we hold is in the millions, and a substantial percentage of the offical float. Many of us have no plans to sell them for a long, long time, and perhaps never, if Anavex begins paying dividends someday, as we expect.

So we longs directly contribute to volatility.

Have you noticed that AVXL has become even more volatile lately?