I've noticed a lot of selling activity out of Nesbitt and National Bank lately. During the big price run-up in Feb-Mar of this year, these two brokerages were the number 1 and number 2 net buyers, by far. Not that there may not be a smart investor or two with accounts at these brokerages, but as a whole the rally chasers (read suckers) that threw a lot of money away had accounts at these brokerages. Yorkton , Scotia McLeod and James Capel also were large net buyers.
By contrast, the following brokerages had net sales of at least 20K shares during the last run-up: Goepel DcDermid, Union, DS, Canaccord, Merrill Lynch, Green Line and CT International. The hands-down winner in unloading was CT International, divesting 497K shares while buying only 163K shares for a net share sale of 334K shares.
Players can switch brokerages and some may have accounts at more than one, but by and large the smart money is still at those brokerages I listed above. Investors would do well to track the buying and selling habits of these brokerages daily and look for developing accumulation or distribution patterns. Accumulation by the CT International and other net distributors during the last run-up should be considered bullish, as would coincident distribution by the likes of Nesbitt and National Bank. On the other hand, distribution by CT et al and accumulation by Nesbitt and National should be considered bearish. I caution you not to look so much at the daily statistics, but the aggregate activity.
Just my take on the situation. |
