Hi BigPic!

I doubt a company will short the stock as part of a takeover bid. For a bid to be successful you need to be acquiring stock so that you can have some voting clout. Any TOB would have to be voted on by shareholders, and I doubt many on this forum would agree to a deal that values the company cheaply. Those shares sold short would have to be covered at higher prices.

My view of the current situation is unchanged from what I posted a few days ago. ECU is under pressure from naked shorts that understand the sentiment of the market and are able to create weakness by carpet bombing the stock and posting large phantom selling orders. There are so many small retail players in ECU that anyone who chooses to sell will almost always post the offer below a big block and therefore the stock is relatively easy to manipulate lower.

We all know the fundamentals for ECU remain strong. The performance of the metals is also very good. So its very frustrating to watch this stock drag its feet month after month.

I think we just must remain patient for a change of sentiment. When ECU was rolling a few years ago it was in an atmosphere of intense speculation and bullish enthusiasm for the entire sector. Shorts get run over in such an environment and they stay away so the stock is free to trade higher on its own merits. I think those days will return again. In fact, every day that the metals can defy the bearish expectations will bring us closer to that snap-back rally that is so long overdue. People who have been waiting on the sidelines as gold marches higher will eventually stampede back in. It was in 2005 that we got a similar catch-up rally in the oil and gas stocks, as the market finally clued in that higher O&G prices were there to stay. So too will things evolve for the mining juniors.

cheers!

mike