Nice bit of work gamblor77! Certainly no coincidence - the 49900 shares you happened to see traded Dec. 20 on Level 2 are certainly the very same 49900 shares that director Richardson bought.

It is a typical situation that a person may put a trade through an "introducing broker", and that broker may have one or more "executing brokers".

Richardson could deal with any of the smaller houses as his introducing broker, who would then route through e.g. Canaccord.

At his level of investment, the introducing broker may also be a wholesale broker (i.e. one that us mere mortals can't use).

National Bank, vs. Canaccord, initially was ID'd by Kodiak to me over the telephone as KXL's Market Maker, information which they later retracted. So even if they don't have an official role, certainly National Bank have a favoured pole position and a special role, e.g. stock support in exchange for favourable access to e.g. PPs. I saw them very aggressively holding the minimum SP line at $4 just a day or two ago.

Richardson's buy-ins at full market price serve to narrow the float - not different from a company buying its own shares. But I'm very sure he is buying at $4+ to win, no doubt about it.