The brutal sell-off that since the Wednesday before Easter has cleaved the market capitalisation of Blue Sky Alternative Investments fully in half eased on Friday, with the stock closing up 8¢ at $5.70.

That was after Blue Sky had fallen another 19.9 per cent from $5.62 to $4.50 before lunch, until the company began lodging notices that its directors had been buying stock. It was enough to stem the panic – even though some of the outlay involved was either token or confused, at least for a conviction signal. Former Perpetual and Schroders Australia CIO Michael Gordon paid $85,480 for 10,000 shares when Blue Sky emerged from its halt on Wednesday. But on Thursday, he bought only 5000 shares, for a total consideration of $34,989. Hardly backing the truck up. And if you like it at $8.55, shouldn't you absolutely love it at $6.99?