RE:Something Stinks Actually, yes. The companies will wait until the market cap hits billions for similar reasons that larger institutinos won't touch it until much later. "Risk" and justifiying the purchase to the larger investment community along with a lack of true catalysts after early 2024. Their purchase would be essentially languishing for quite some time until the actual commercial plant is within a 12 month first lithium window, and they likely have other, higher return internal/external projects. That and ETL isn't making as much progress IMO because it's got such a large float but a lack of volume with respect to the public float.
The only true advantages long-term investors have is their time horizons of 5 years plus compared to Wall St's quarterly and annual considerations. They beat retail in every other metric of information and expertise. So, they wait until their incentives are aligned, and this stock could hit $20 this year, but next year it'll likely drop back to $10 as people take their profits until we get closer and closer to first lithium