The Cardinal takeover was definitely very interesting, it ended up being a battle between Russian and Chinese interests and as such I knew they will be upping the stakes. My only regret is not to have bought more and really only made a bit of money on the side... When two very determined parties bid you do not want to sell until they're both done - like at a house auction. But the history seems to be interesting:

1/ Offer by Nordgold came in June at some 45c. Jump to 60c level.

2/ Shandong makes the offer of 60c

3/ The Russians make their takeover on market and there is a huge BUY order sitting in the market at some 68c. I bought more just above that, because the downside risk was just about non-existent.

4/ Shandong goes above with cash offer and then they have a series of upping the stake. When the offers are at $1.05 shares regularly spike up. This is because Shandong needs 50.1% for its offer to be unconditional, so they are buying parcels on market above the cash offer. I sold half of my lot for $1.09

5/ Shandong ups the cash offer to $1.075 - my guess is that it was to get Nordgold's stake off them. Nordgold does not get Cardinal but makes money in the process. Both bidders really won, in reality it would otherwise be ugly between them.

At the moment Shandong has over 68% now so I think the game is over. However, what puzzled me was today's announcement (see the straw as I can attach the picture there).

While I did not make much money from this I have definitely learned how to read these kinds of situations and the learning might benefit me next time!