Bo, A lot of ideas here. First I believe ones own co. can issue shares in their stock as being there own t/s. 2ndly the reason they probably hit 4 on the ask (don't know what the bid was at the time) was probably to capture those limit sells somewhere in between the first 30 minutes of trading. The first 30 to 45 minutes most volatile as mm's make the days market.
Finally what is interesting ia this weeks volume trading from the day the r/s was to take place to Fridays close. Man talk about a lot of volume and now shorted shares. Also we must remember that the total volume "should" equal pretty close to "sells & buys" in the real world.
Yes Spring fever is in the air, though I think the Midwest has had a Spring type Winter for the last 2o yr.s or so. O.T. here... I heard on the news yesterday that they have a health advisory out for smog type air there due to unseasonably warm weather. Sioux Falls, So. Dak was 61 degrees yesterday while it should of been around 10 below zero. How strange! Our high in So. Cal was 67. Really crazy.