The big spenders have bailed, leaving a harried few to mop up (or drop) a few shares two weeks before Christmas.

Now was as good a time as any for Austal (ASX:ASB) chairman John Rothwell to dump almost $1m of stock this week.

The shares have been tracking sideways since the tail end of 2016, notwithstanding consistent news about new contracts and boats delivered.

On November 11, 2016, Austal shares were $1.80. On Friday, they closed at $1.86.

>> Scroll down for the who’s who of traders last week.

It just so happens that on November 11, 2016, Mr Rothwell made his last trade in the company — this time buying 306,947 shares for about half a million bucks.

Think Childcare (ASX:TNK) chief and managing director Mathew Edwards also sold, making $260,000.

Two weeks earlier, Mr Edwards and chairman Mark Kerr watched as 33,333 and 13,333 performance rights, respectively, were cancelled as they hadn’t hit their targets.

Redbubble (ASX:RBL) founder Martin Hosking stepped down as chief of the company in June, citing the noble cause of needing to serve the business, not his own ego.

But he’s not gone.

Still on the board, Mr Hosking bought another 1.7m shares for just over $800,000 and owns almost 20 per cent of the company.

Redbubble’s shares have tanked since November after they said the marketplace was being penalised by a Google algorithm change — just before Thanksgiving. Sales for that festive season were up on the year before, but the vagaries of the Google Algorithm still spooked investors.

Dongfang Modern Agriculture’s (ASX:DFM) youthful chief was back buying, as he has been every week since the start of September.

He now owns 70 per cent of the China-focused orange grower.

Consolidated Zinc (ASX:CZL) chairman Stephen Copulos did a rubbish trade last week, buying stock for 2.4c and selling for 1.8c.

The purchase for $105,000 was part of a share purchase plan and the sale for $180,000 was an off market deal.

Mr Copulos has been around ASX boards for years, noting a series of mining and food companies on his resume from KFC to Crusader Resources.

He is also a big shareholder in Myer (ASX:MYR), and reckons the retailer should close a third of its stores ASAP — to teach its landlords a lesson.

Code Company Director Change Date Volume $ What Total holdings controlled
PGC Paragon Care Brent Stewart Buy Dec 7 160,000 100000 On market 3m
SHV Select Harvests Frederick Grimwade Sell Dec 4, 6, 7 20,000 119899 On market 86,375
TGO Trimantium GrowthOps Phillip Kingston Buy Dec 10 100,000 100000 Off market 23m
Z1P Zip Co Phillip Crutchfield Buy Dec 6 700,000 700,000 Exercise options 5.2m
ASB Austal John Rothwell Sell Dec 5-7 500,000 928493 On market 32m
LCM Litigation Capital Management Patrick Moloney Buy Dec 4 555,556 500000 Capital raising 5m
LMG Latrobe Magnesium David Paterson Buy Dec 10 23m 181769 Convert debt to equity 123m
NTD National Tyre & Wheel Terence Smith Buy Nov 15-19 505,000 295083 On market 28m
PPC Peet Trevor Allen Sell Dec 11 1331 136405 On market 95,837
WGX Westgold Resources Peter Cook Buy Dec 11 400,000 357249 On market 10m
CZL Consolidated Zinc Stephen Copulos Buy Dec 11 4.4m 105000 Share purchase plan 233m
CZL Consolidated Zinc Stephen Copulos Sell Dec 11 10m 180000 Off market 223m
DFM Dongfang Modern Agriculture Hongwei Cai Buy Dec 11 149,481 141390 On market 275m
JKL LawFinance Diane Jones Buy Nov 7, 21 2.1m 114189 Capital raising and convert performance rights 3.6m
PAR Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals Paul Rennie Buy Dec 13 780,392 545000 Capital raising and share plan 45m
RBL Redbubble Martin Hosking Buy Dec 14 1.7m 833261 Exercise options 50.4m
TNK Think Childcare Mathew Edwards Sell Dec 14 200,000 260,000 On market 14m
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