Waiting (In Vain) For Barry

With virtually every procedural issue behind us and awards directly ahead, ERHC Energy (OTC BB symbol: ERHE) investors who follow UpstreamOnline oil reporter Barry Morgan are anxiously awaiting his report tonight to confirm their hopes about the awards process. There is no guarantee he will provide one, but readers feel that since he hasn't spoken out in two weeks a new report is probably overdue.

Update, 7:16pm 3/14/05: From the always reliable Ruby1100 on the Raging Bull ERHE message board comes word there'll be no Barry Morgan story tonight:

I guess I will do something for next week's issue. I have been out of circulation for the past week in Lagos.

The last reporting on the JDZ in UpstreamOnline came on April 12, but the story was not widely reproduced,as it normally is, on Raging Bull.

Meanwhile, the forces that shaped yesterday's incredible performance - producing a gain despite a daylong trickle of sales that only reversed in the last 12 minutes, when more than 318,000 shares were purchased - have been absent today, or at least ambivalent.

Today, while buys outpaced sells by a small margin all morning until 1:34pm EST, when the trend reversed, the price has weakened slightly, with the latest sale at 2:44 going off at $0.696, a $0.014 drop from the opening $0.71. The ask is at $0.70, where the great majority of today's 113 trades (as 2:22) have occurred.

That is consistent with weakening oil prices and a bad day for both the Dow and a worse one for the Nasdaq, but the fact that market makers are not permitting the price to drop appreciably again reinforces the view that they are convinced the direction of ERHE is definitely upwards. Buyers are finding it increasingly tough to buy cheap shares, a fact that has kept volume at just 770,432 with just 45 minutes to the close.

At 2:22, sells outran buys by 420,259 to 346,182. A substantial number of those sales are likely the reluctant result of the many delays, and reflect traders' need to pay the U.S. taxman on April 15 after hoping for earlier awards that would have allowed them to sell with higher gains befiore taxes came due.

ERHC On The Move has maintained its portfolio of 123,040 shares through tax season and filed an extension instead.

Should late buying occur again today, traders will welcome a last-minute improvement. But it is likely that many of them will also be hoping until the end to get their tax bills paid by selling at a better rpice, but it appears now (at 2:57pm EST) the market may frustrate them by rejecting higher asks.

Update, 6:18pm 3/14/05: ERHE ended up off 4.22 percent Thursday evening after a brief buying surge of 14,000 shares in six trades was overtaken by eight sales totaling 82,190 shares offset by just one 2,800-share purchase.

There were substantially fewer trades today than yesterday's 163, and today's volume did not quite keep pace with Wednesday's 996,985: Thursday's voume was 993,456 on a total of 151 trades. Shares sold totalled 598,659 while buys totalled 394,797, roughly a 3:2 ratio.

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