Babaoriley: … many, including me, feel that the SP is in some part a reflection of the current potential of the company; …

Yes, it's about potential! I mean, would anyone buy into a stock who thinks the share price reflected exactly the current value? Of course not. You buy if you think the share price is lower than it should be and has the potential to go up. You sell if you think the share price is higher than it should be and has the potential to go down.

To find out how large the potential is and in which direction, you somehow have to evaluate it. If you are a trader you might take things like RSI, Bollinger Bands, etc. into account. If you are an investor, you are looking at earnings, assets, liabilities, markets, etc. – and business development, of course. Very important in our case!

When doing their evaluations, different people are coming to different conclusions regarding the potential, because there are a lot of assumptions you have to make. And these different conclusions make the stock market go round, especially when news or intriguing speculations come up or when the share price crosses any technical analysis curves. Such events make people re-evaluate their former considerations, might make them come to different assessments of the potential and press the buy or sell button accordingly, leading to higher volumes.

If you are interested in my way of thinking regarding POET's potential, read my post of 2016-04-27, one day before the DenseLight Acquisition was announced.

Currently we are observing low volumes with ups and downs in a rather small range. Yes, it's more down than up. I think the reason is that people might be forced to sell, because they need the money, perhaps due to unforeseen expenses, perhaps in order to be able to execute options, etc., etc. On the other hand no one is ever forced to buy into a stock.

By the way, when evaluating the potential, I don't think there's much point in looking back. The potential is something between now and some point in future. For the potential it is irrelevant how long you are invested, what your average price is – or your degree of frustration. It's only between now and then.

(While the period of time you are invested is irrelevant to the potential, some experience with this stock might improve your ability to estimate the potential.)