So let's start with a question for you chartists and TA buffs that refuse to be fooled by randomness. Here's the 12 month chart for Radius Gold (RDU.v) (RDUFF.ob). As you can see it ramped late August, spent September up at the 70c level (and even touched 80c for a moment) but in October it's faded back somewhat and right now stands at 56c.
Being nice and that, your humble scribe has included Bollybands, MACD and RSI (cos we normal people know how you TA guys lurve them there squiggles) and now here comes the question:
At what price would you buy (or buy back) RDU.v?
Personally speaking I don't really know (and this is why I ask), but once everything were taken into consideration my answer would probably eschew the finer points of TA and be "Whenever the insiders start buying back". That's because not one but five insiders took advantage of that pop in RDU.v to sell their held stock in September at those elevated prices, all the sales coming after a long period of inactivity in their insider positions when not a single paper got sold. Here comes the details, with first up RDU's Exploration Adviser, David Cass:
Cass, David Maurice2010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership : 51 - Exercise of options -90,000 410,000 0.52002010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership : 51 - Exercise of options +90,000 0.52002010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -50,000 0.78002010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -5,000 0.79002010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -19,500 0.80002010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -10,500 0.81002010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -5,000 0.82002010-09-08 2010-09-09 Direct Ownership : 51 - Exercise of options -100,000 310,000 0.52002010-09-08 2010-09-09 Direct Ownership : 51 - Exercise of options +100,000 0.52002010-09-08 2010-09-09 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -30,000 0.78002010-09-08 2010-09-09 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -15,000 0.79002010-09-08 2010-09-09 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -45,000 0.80002010-09-08 2010-09-09 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -10,000 0.8100
A lot of numbers and lines there, but put simply on September 7th and 8th David Cass exercised 190,000 options he had at a base price of 52c and immediately sold them into the market for prices between 78c and 82c. The total value of shares sold was $150,505, but to get the profit David Cass walked away with you have to subtract the 52c exercise price on those shares, which comes to $98,800. Therefore Cass's proceeds from the trades come to $51,705.
Bales, Kevin2010-09-02 2010-09-10 Direct Ownership : 51 - Exercise of options -30,000 0.26002010-09-02 2010-09-10 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -30,000 0.63002010-09-28 2010-09-30 Direct Ownership : 51 - Exercise of options -20,000 0.26002010-09-28 2010-09-30 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -20,000 0.7300
This time the quickmath shows that company CFO Kevin Bales exercised 50,000 of his 26c base price options on Sept 2nd and Sept 28th, selling both tranches on the same day. Selling value of $33,500 minus options base total of $13,000 gives us the final proceeds to Kevin Bales of $20,500
Cooke, Bradford2010-09-20 2010-09-24 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -10,000 0.6900
This one is straightforward, with no options exercising involved. Director Bradford Cooke sold 10,000 of his RDU.v shares on September 20th at 69c a pop, $6,900 cash in hand.
Osler, Tim R.2010-09-21 2010-09-26 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -3,500 0.70002010-09-21 2010-09-26 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -3,500 0.70002010-09-21 2010-09-26 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -8,000 0.70002010-09-22 2010-09-26 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -20,000 0.70002010-09-22 2010-09-26 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -20,000 0.7000
RDU's Corporate Secretary Tim Osler decided to sell a chunk of his shares in September, too. In his case, 55,000 shares and all at 70c went on September 21st nd 22nd. Proceeds from the sales, $38,500.
Rushton, Ralph2010-09-03 2010-09-06 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -7,500 0.7000
Our final September seller was VP Corp Development Ralph Rushton, who sold 7,500 wholly owned shares for 70c on September 3rd and bringing in proceeds of $5,250
So in total, Radius Gold insiders sold 312,500 shares of the company to the market in the month of September. The total value of the shares sold came to $234,655 and the (pre-tax) cash banked by the five directors aggregated to $122,855.
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To sum up, it's not the absolute amount of cash involved here, because in the great scheme of things less than a quarter of a million dollars' worth of insider sales is a drop in the veritable ocean when it comes to the cash moved around the markets in any single day. But there is clearly a good sense of timing shared by not one but five insiders here, something that catches your humble scribe's attention far more than any squiggly line on a chart will ever manage. So watch those insider filings on RDU.v in the future, people. Clues available for winning trades.
Finally, we'd like to applaud company head honcho Simon Ridgway for not selling a single share of RDU recently, despite having loaded up earlier in the year at 30c and 35c prices in the open market. A man with bigger fish to fry, perchance....
DYODD, dude.