12 Comments

    • NYT Smears David Einhorn, Again [view article]
      Whitney, Apparently you missed all those NYT Articles providing the free advertising and promotions for Einhorn. Typical short seller - focus heavily on the negatives to distort the picture.

      As for your "short seller whine" of woe-is-me, think about it. Short sellers do not simply short a stock, they short it and then punish the company thereafter in the media and in nasty letters to the board. Short sellers also take up position and whine to the SEC for an investigation. Short sellers don't simply take up a position and see how it turns out, they manufacture an outcome so they can move on thereafter.

      Now on that note, you don't like Patrick Byrne because he goes after the short seller who ILLEGALLY shorts a stock (don't confuse/distort his efforts against illegal shorting with his admission that legal shorting is necessary for the markets). Isn't what Byrne doing EXACTLY what you pat Einhorn on the back for doing? Einhorn has been dead wrong on Allied based on several federal investigations and yet he continues anyway - because it is HIS opinion. Byrne does the same, without any federal vidication for his accused, and you cowards (including the media) attack the messenger. Answer this, why has the aggregate daily dollar value in failed trades increased from $3.4 Billion daily in January 2005 to over $8.4 Billion in March 2008 if the industry is taking trade settlement seriously and acting legally?

      I say the real issue here is that you do like to be able to speak your mind but that you find issue with others doing the same if it differs from yours.
      Jun 13 08:02 AM
    • Errors in Overstock's Submissions to SEC: What Do They Signify? [view article]
      Byrne doesn't sound so crazy when you listen to those deep in the know;

      Anand K. Ramtahal, VP, FINRA

      "I don’t know how to fight off an aiding and abetting charge when a customer misrepresents to you and you really do nothing to track the underlying fails that result from that misrepresentation. You have to seriously think about the aiding and abetting violation that is in the regulation right now so it’s, you know, really the Commission is moving in a different direction when it comes to regulation—Regulation SHO and growth of the other issues around Regulation SHO. And quite frankly I can tell you from where I sit, I mean, there is a lot going on, I was talking to my fellow panelists this morning, on the Hill, in Washington, around Regulation SHO. So we can expect to see a lot more in the way of rule making and amendments to this regulation as we move forward. So, the regulation was adopted in January 2005, but there is a lot of discussion around misrepresentation and peripheral issues wherein short and long sales have failed to deliver."


      investigatethesec.com/...

      It is too bad Sam, Tracy Coenen, Gary Weiss, Herb Greenberg, et. al. never seek to understand these issues Byrne has spoken of. Clearly others of more significance have taken note.
      May 21 03:30 PM
    • Is Netflix a Short Term Sell or a Long Term Buy? [view article]
      The stock is opening down $5.50/share or 14% on speculation after meeting Q1 estimates. Apparently hitting targets is no longer acceptable. With such a large short position in the stock I can only wonder who is initiating all the negativity we see before us. Let the raiding begin. Apr 22 09:34 AM
    • Overstock Earnings: Has a Turnaround Really Occurred? [view article]
      Marketwatch on Friday;

      OSTK, , ) shares surged $4.47, to close at $18.47 after the Salt Lake City-based company posted a first-quarter loss of $3.9 million, or 17 cents a share, on $200.7 million in sales.

      The results topped the estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, who had forecast Overstock to lose 32 cents a share on $168.9 mililon in revenue.

      Sam, do you think that the fact that Overstock blew away analyst expectations had anything to do with the run up? Is everybody in this conspiracy against you and your tag team of vindictive losers? Let us all in on the secret with the analysts. Maybe they didn't factor in Easter and a leap year into their expectations or...maybe Overstock actually performed well this past quarter.

      Come clean Sam, you are a spineless twit that throws out fraud accusations under the disguise of free speech when in fact you are attempting to manipulate the market you accused Byrne of manipulating. Why else would you dedicate such time and resource on one company you claim you have no financial interest in? Operative word - CLAIM.
      Apr 21 12:22 PM
    • Overstock Earnings: Has a Turnaround Really Occurred? [view article]
      Sam, really is all this true?

      You and Gary Weiss seem obsessed over this Marin County investigation and preferred that Overstock announce that negative news on options expiration but didn't want the positive quarterly results likewise announced since that was positive news.

      Here is a flaw in your analysis. If 2007 Q1 was non-GAAP, and by all of your previous claims presented overly optimistic results, then Overstock clearly understated the performance improvement this quarter since this quarter was filed according to GAAP. I am really amused at your obsession with Easter and Leap days as well. Can we assume you will be writing about other retailers who likewise took this advantage into Q1 earnings?
      Apr 21 09:47 AM
    • Overstock's Q1 Spin Hides Some Worrying News [view article]
      Gary, Overstock announced the Marin County Investigation within 3 days of the news they received. That is within legal time limits on a material issue. BTW, your buddy sam Antar is accusing Overstock of Manipulating the Options Market when they announced their quarterly results on Options expiration date.

      Can you guys get on the same page? It seems you guys want Overstock to announce an investigation into their advertising (negative) at options expiration but not quarterly results (positive). Is that because you guys had outstanding puts in the market? Notice they announced both on the same day.
      Apr 21 09:41 AM
    • Overstock's Q1 Spin Hides Some Worrying News [view article]
      Weiss is a coward and a shill. He is an embarassment to financial media and should be investigated for criminal stock manipulation. Weiss, Sam Antar, and Tracey Coenen as well as a few others are clearly working to destroy a publicly traded company and have gone well beyond freedom of speech.

      For individuals to be 'saviors' looking out for the best interests of the investing public they sure have a funny way of showing it. I am personally interested in who is financing this campaign of trash talk by these individuals.
      Apr 21 09:37 AM
    • Naked Shorting Comes Full Circle [view article]
      For reference on the issue of liquidity at all cost;

      Dow Jones 2004;

      "Whatever the proper oversight scope applied to these agile pools of private capital, Donaldson in a Sept. 20, 2004 interview in The Financial Times injected a strange rationale into the contentious debate: 'How much fraud are you willing to tolerate for liquidity? I think the answer is zero.'"

      Clearly not all believed that just adding liquidity into the market was a safe approach. Not every investor has a right to purchase or sell at a convienient fixed price, such must be balanced on proper supply and demand of shares issued not IOU's and entitlements to future shares.
      Apr 08 10:04 AM
    • Naked Shorting Comes Full Circle [view article]
      AustrianEconomist, I believe you are misguided.

      1. An options trader has no right to directly impact the equity market through the sale of unlimited options contracts. Such activity is being used as a form of manipulation as short sellers have simply moved their naked shorting into that environment.

      2. The volume of options trading these past years has experienced 20 - 30% growth year over year. The OMM exemption represents an extremely small subset of that total volume according to a study by Vodia Group and the use of the exemption is primarily in localized issues.

      3. Citadel, the largest Options Trader drafted a repsonse to the SEC in the 2006 proposed rule stating that they do not use nor do they need the OMM exemption to run their business.

      Liquidity can never be an excuse for fraud. In this case, with such a small percentage of investors trading the options market, it is foolish to give these investors such significance in the market pricing of an equity to which so many do invest. Options traders simply want to stock without paying the premium, such freedom will come at a price and that would be liquidity controls. If you hadn't noticed, insider trading fraud (all recent cases) and now most likely short sale fraud has originated from the Options market.
      Apr 08 09:53 AM
    • Naked Shorting Comes Full Circle [view article]
      Bill, thanks for the plug.

      As for those wondering about Bear Stearns. The collapse of Bear Stearns rests solely on the SEC. If you look closely at the trade data, the initial collapse took place while heavy puts were taking place in the market. Because the SEC has failed for 2 years to remove the OMM exemtion, the heavy put volume created massive naked shorts into the equity market (OMM hedge).

      The short sellers were well aware of the liability their trading would have on the OMM and forced a heavy equity selloff to hedge the puts they sold. Add in the rumors and the sell off based on these naked put sales and the fear in the market was created. This data is 100% supported by the timeline to when BSC hit the SHO list.
      Apr 07 05:50 PM
    • Strong, Sudden Interest In Lehman Puts [view article]
      And shortly we will see the destruction of Lehman in a manner similar to Bear Stearns. This is the threat that will cause panic in the near future. This is the simply putting the steak in for seasoning before Wall Street eats yet another one of it's own. Mar 30 11:38 AM
    • Should We Listen to Mainstream Media or Financial Institutions? [view article]
      Bill, you have said it all. Business media has been reduced to a grouping of mouthpieces financed by their sources. Few within this profession actually investigate anything anymore instead taking the phone call and reporting on what a source has to say.

      Money has brought laziness and business media has become the laziest of all. Journalists speak for the wealthy and in the process have aided in the destruction of the US capital market system and our economy.
      Mar 30 11:35 AM
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