lol ... yip it's all Trumps fault! Love it.Still ... you've got...

lol ... yip it's all Trumps fault! Love it.

Still ... you've got to wonder about that bullet being an inch from changing the world. The Panamanians' would like to offer free marksmanship courses retrospectively I expect.

So ... the first MUFG notice of becoming a substantial shareholder has market buys and borrowing (from Morgan Stanley) and some cross trade buying from M/S from 21/8 all the way through to 20/12 with two and a half pages of buying going on on 18/12 ... no selling or loaning out.

The second notice of MUFG ceasing to be a substantial shareholder are for transactions from 23/12 to 24/12 only. (Including returning borrowed shares)

MUFG have crossed the 5% threshold before and then soon after retraced.

On 1/10 there was a Substantial Shareholder Notice from First Sentier Investors ... Citibank/Citigroup, JP Morgan, BNP, a couple others then right at the bottom - Mitsubishi UFG (4.5m shares)

So in this case MUFG owned the shares and loaned them to FSI who then had to register their interest as a Substantial holder.

No mention of Morgan Stanley in that notice ... (JP Morgans' grandson formed Morgan Stanley ... they are separate entities technically)

From @deco19 in Sept

MUFG have a lending agreement with Morgan Stanley
MUFG own 22% of Morgan Stanley
First Sentier are a subsidiary of MUFG

The trio are commonly involved in shorting campaigns across ASX stocks.

Nothing to see here.

From the Annual Report in Feb

Top eight holders HSBC, JPM, Citi, National, HSBC, BNP, HSBC, BNP from 132m down to 10m

Conclusions

KAR is a financial plaything where the various banks simply trade amongst themselves matching orders and loaning out or borrowing shares to short on behalf of their various clients who (probably) have their own goals, some longer term, some shorter.
It is not right to say that the shorts will burn ... they won't ... there is a bigger picture going on here, one that can't be deduced from daily action alone. I expect MUFG have a longer term approach to KAR than many of the other financial institutions clients but they are all here to make money.
So I assume the main goal here by the likes of JMP, MS and Citi etc, is to drive the price down whilst accumulating.
The "Buy Back" is a signal that the company sees value here ... but they can't compete against JPM, MS Citi et al.
But the doji on 18/12 is undeniable ... and MUFG had 2.5 pages of buying against that date on their notice

Say No More! lol

(you're welcome and Happy New Year!)