A Few Things Worth Mentioning… Posted on April 12, 2017 by
Apr 12, 2017 9:02:13 GMT -5
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alethea, mechstan, and 9 more like this
Post by sportsrancho on Apr 12, 2017 9:02:13 GMT -5
First, The SEC issued a press release two days ago, stating that companies that pay for bullish articles to be written about them, must disclose such activities. Seems like a fair idea,but it has me scratching my head. I know I am not an attorney, and there may actually be similar laws in place with respect to the concerted bearish articles that are well-known to be funded by the short side..i.e. hedge funds. Naked short attacks are always accompanied by an all out assault by “pop-up” authors, which I know MNKD investors are all too aware of. Where are the disclosure requirements when the bearish articles are being funded by those firms that are short a particular stock? Seems the SEC is still missing the mark when it comes to protecting investors, from naked short attacks and bear raids which are done by groups rather than individuals. Case in point and up next..
MKND! – STOP THE PRESSES! WE INTERRUPT THIS BRIEFING FOR AN IMPORTANT ‘I TOLD YOU SO! MOMENT”
I just cannot change my evil ways! Yesterday, MNKD stock soared nearly 10%, on speculation the company may be ‘for sale.’ I’ll go so far as to say my money is on Sanofi acquiring them, now, because I am pretty sure I said that Sanofi would likely end up buying MNKD out a while back, though it may have been more recent than I recall,…or both? Ah...here it is ..November 2016. Five months ago…
What I do have absolute certainty AND evidence of, however is my prediction that this would occur. Here’s another one I look to have gotten right boys and girls, and haters of all ages!
O Ye O’ L’il Faith! Why Did Thou Doubt?
I told you so then…and I told you So before then also! A double double!:
I Once Thought I Was Wrong, But I Was Mistaken! RE: MNKD
So hopefully, everyone is okay now, and breathing better. It is my sincerest hope that if a deal is done it is done in the best interest of the companies shareholders…meaning I hope you get back what was taken from you. If a deal is to come, you should consider it a win no matter the final tally. You will have joined a group of investors in only a select few companies, that survived a naked short sale attack on the scale we’ve seen with MNKD. I’m sure I will become a target to an even bigger group now, that will have to cover their short positions and pay taxes on the gains. Perhaps the best part of that is the paper trail they will be creating by doing so, which I’m sure regulators will be scrutinizing when they occur, to find the source of the counterfeiting scheme and bring those responsible to justice, For whatever part I might have helped make it possible, if it is to happen, I am glad to have helped. I honestly believe in Mannkind and Afrezza, though I have no position nor diabetes, nor am I am affiliated with anyone who is or has, beyond some of you here for the short data, and perhaps my opinion.
There was a time Sirius XM was being reported to be filing for bankruptcy the following Monday some years ago. Over 5700 articles had been written stating it as a fact that was in the works. I began to cry as I got ready to go home that afternoon. I had caused a great many people to hold and acquire the stock as it dipped to just 6 cents a share that day. I wondered if I didnt just ruin people’s lives. Then a news headline came across the ticker, stating that Sirius XM’s credit rating had been upgraded. I knew right away it meant the bond that was coming due on Monday had been paid, and I wrote the only article stating the company had avoided bankruptcy which was desperately needed by many that weekend that thought all was lost. A deal was announced the following Monday, and let me tell you…we made A LOT of money on the way back up over the next 3 years. A LOT OF MONEY. SIRI was the top percentage gainer three years running I believe. So I hope and pray a deal if it happens, makes you all whole, and then some. Enjoy the short squeeze for now. Way you go Matt!
..now back to our regularly scheduled update. You should stick around and gain some insights into the problem that is chasing MNKD down until now. It may help you avoid a similar experience in the future:
Over the past year or two, I’ve continued to learn more about how these criminals work. The one aspect you may find surprising, is that the apparent lack of prosecution in naked short attacks is not the SEC’s fault! Fact is when the SEC has uncovered evidence of naked short selling, it has acted to enforce laws and issued fines, even to the likes of Goldman Sachs, UBS, Merrill Lynch and more. The problem is that the criminals are so sophisticated now, it’s like trying to stop illegal drugs from getting into the United States. For every one caught, 1000 more get through.
It was about a year ago, or more, that I had reported on various writers, claiming to be experts and bashing the hell out of MNKD. One as I recall claimed to have never missed a call on anything, and had what I considered at the time, ties to terrorists in the middle east. That may not only be true, it’s my point when it comes to what I uncovered looking into that writers background.
He was a member of an on-line and private (invitation only, via the Internet) GROUP, which consisted of hedge fund managers from multiple funds and their clients…and these writers …An online group which I believe had well over 100,000 members to its credit, working in concert to plan which companies to target, and which can include members from terrorist organizations, enemy Nations of the United States and even our own elected officials, law enforcement personnel or even the person sitting next to you. How can it be that every hedge fund billionaire I’ve ever heard speak, has lost money hand over fist for the past 20 or more years, yet their net worth continues to increase? THIS is how…
They are unregulated and operate not underground, but so above ground they are untouchable. Even the New York Stock Exchange is petitioning the S.E.C. to require that fund managers report their short positions, and the support for the proposed rule change is as missing there, as it is here, on stockshortdata.com.
When it comes to defending against a naked short attack, asking the SEC for help is futile. There are few ways to avoid it, or to survive it. Three raids that come to mind to exemplify survival are IBOC, SIRI and OSTK.
OSTK – CEO, Patrick Byrne went on the offensive when he learned of what was happening to his company stock, and fought back using the media to educate investors, regulators and the public on naked short selling. He named names, and filed lawsuits, and though the battle went on for probably a decade or more, and may be ongoing in some respects today, he prevailed. OSTK reached settlement agreements with most if not all of the lawsuits they filed. It was then and is now, a long, difficult and expensive route to take…and it can take its toll on a CEO and investors.
IBOC – With respect to the OSTK case, the naked short sellers would argue that the company was poorly run, to deflect the blame away from those counterfeiting the stock. IBOC had never had a negative quarter in its history, but saw $1.2 billion in market cap wiped out in the naked short attacks that targeted U.S. financial companies to start the recession, that it seems too many have all but forgotten.
Here’s what IBOC CEO Dennis Nixon told the SEC:
Mr. and Mrs. Mainstream America, in my view, is being abused. We lost $1,200,000,000 worth of value in our company in about 45 days.“
“…I still don’t understand why the short side of the market is allowed to issue shares at random, at will, at whim, without any kind of registration restrictions at all. In my case, in our company, we have a certain number of registered shares, and we’ve had to go through an exhaustive process through your agency to get those shares registered. We have to file proxy statements. We have to file annual reports. But somebody, at a whim, can go out and issue 11 million of my shares in 45 days without any of those requirements.”
“…I disagree with that because we’ve seen a pattern of over-voting. But I still get down to the fact that if … I want to issue 11 million more shares of my stock on the long side, I’ve got to go through a very diligent process, and a very exhaustive process, to do that. And under the short side of the market, they simply have expanded my shares to another 11 million shares. And they’ve imposed them on a market situation on a short period of time where there’s no effort being planned on the positive side of the market to acquire — to ensure any kind of orthodox issuance.”
“Most people, when they go out and have a new stock issuance, have road shows, promote the value of the company, all of those positive aspects in issuing shares. And I have had a stock that’s traded in the range of a couple of hundred thousand shares a day — some people have joked that my shares trade by appointment — and suddenly I’m trading at a million five and two million shares a day, and somebody in a short period of time dumps 11 million shares of stock on the market. There is no way in the world that that stock can be defended against loss. I can’t come out and make positive statements about my company because those would be forward looking comments and I’d be slapped down for that.”
“But the short side can create all kinds of speculative comments and issue negative reports and draw questions against the company. And in the bear market which we’ve just recently experienced, there’s almost no defensible position that a positive side of the market has. Nobody wants to listen to good news. They only want to listen to bad news. So there’s no defensible position on the long side.
…and there it is. Eight years after that meeting, we still have a landscape where companies must disclose when they pay for bullish articles, while short sellers can pay to have anything written and never disclose a thing. That can create a dozen fake names and write articles applauding themselves and quoting themselves as a real source. This is why I began this website and put the daily short data out there in spite of the attempts to suppress it.
The stage has already been set for not only a repeat of what happened, but worse. This time the market makers have an exemption that permits them to counterfeit stock, which is abused as I knew would happen from the moment I first heard of the absurdity. IBOC’s CEO took to the offensive as well, giving testimony at a round table discussion by the SEC, in which his was the only voice in the room, representing the interests of investors rather than the others which all represented their bottom lines and which were all part and parcel to the naked short problem to begin with.
SIRI – As OSTK and IBOC teach us that no stock is safe, whether the earnings exceed expectations or miss, or as was argued with SIRI, that the company had too many shares outstanding. SIRI management did next to nothing…at least publicly…to defend itself from the naked short attack that wiped out 20 billion from its investors. SIRI’s survival I maintain, was not as much attributable to Karmazin and Dr. Malone, as it was to its shareholders.
SIRI shareholders did something unprecedented and unmatched to this day: They came together and fought for their company. They did this by writing letters to the FCC to get the merger approved, starting websites that were pro-satellite radio, sending tips en masse to the SEC when issues arose, and as a result of their combined effort, the merger was approved, and so strong were they as a unit, that when push came to shove and it looked like bankruptcy was the only option, the CEO instead, put together a deal to save the company.
I’ll never forget the 180 degree turn David Faber did on his opinion of Satellite Radio, suddenly love, love loving it with Liberty involved after receiving a 50 % stake, which effectively doubled the number of shares that were outstanding prior to the deal, which Faber had used previously in his negative reporting on the company. It was a moment to behold, scumbag that he is…..and the rest of the CNBC shills for that matter., Best financial news money can buy….depending on which side of the camera you’re on. MNKD investors may want to record CNBC on a day a deal is announced for the sudden love fest the talking heads will have for MNKD and Afrezza that day.
I’m convinced there is only one way to stop a naked short sale attack. I’m talking about nipping it in the bud,…because in the end it’s either a sell out, or wipe out, and the terms can be horrific as time erodes. Maybe the next company I help will listen to me and save themselves the pain MNKD investors are now, all too familiar with…I wonder how many MNKD investors in retrospect would agree with this article today?
MKND! – STOP THE PRESSES! WE INTERRUPT THIS BRIEFING FOR AN IMPORTANT ‘I TOLD YOU SO! MOMENT”
I just cannot change my evil ways! Yesterday, MNKD stock soared nearly 10%, on speculation the company may be ‘for sale.’ I’ll go so far as to say my money is on Sanofi acquiring them, now, because I am pretty sure I said that Sanofi would likely end up buying MNKD out a while back, though it may have been more recent than I recall,…or both? Ah...here it is ..November 2016. Five months ago…
What I do have absolute certainty AND evidence of, however is my prediction that this would occur. Here’s another one I look to have gotten right boys and girls, and haters of all ages!
O Ye O’ L’il Faith! Why Did Thou Doubt?
I told you so then…and I told you So before then also! A double double!:
I Once Thought I Was Wrong, But I Was Mistaken! RE: MNKD
So hopefully, everyone is okay now, and breathing better. It is my sincerest hope that if a deal is done it is done in the best interest of the companies shareholders…meaning I hope you get back what was taken from you. If a deal is to come, you should consider it a win no matter the final tally. You will have joined a group of investors in only a select few companies, that survived a naked short sale attack on the scale we’ve seen with MNKD. I’m sure I will become a target to an even bigger group now, that will have to cover their short positions and pay taxes on the gains. Perhaps the best part of that is the paper trail they will be creating by doing so, which I’m sure regulators will be scrutinizing when they occur, to find the source of the counterfeiting scheme and bring those responsible to justice, For whatever part I might have helped make it possible, if it is to happen, I am glad to have helped. I honestly believe in Mannkind and Afrezza, though I have no position nor diabetes, nor am I am affiliated with anyone who is or has, beyond some of you here for the short data, and perhaps my opinion.
There was a time Sirius XM was being reported to be filing for bankruptcy the following Monday some years ago. Over 5700 articles had been written stating it as a fact that was in the works. I began to cry as I got ready to go home that afternoon. I had caused a great many people to hold and acquire the stock as it dipped to just 6 cents a share that day. I wondered if I didnt just ruin people’s lives. Then a news headline came across the ticker, stating that Sirius XM’s credit rating had been upgraded. I knew right away it meant the bond that was coming due on Monday had been paid, and I wrote the only article stating the company had avoided bankruptcy which was desperately needed by many that weekend that thought all was lost. A deal was announced the following Monday, and let me tell you…we made A LOT of money on the way back up over the next 3 years. A LOT OF MONEY. SIRI was the top percentage gainer three years running I believe. So I hope and pray a deal if it happens, makes you all whole, and then some. Enjoy the short squeeze for now. Way you go Matt!
..now back to our regularly scheduled update. You should stick around and gain some insights into the problem that is chasing MNKD down until now. It may help you avoid a similar experience in the future:
Over the past year or two, I’ve continued to learn more about how these criminals work. The one aspect you may find surprising, is that the apparent lack of prosecution in naked short attacks is not the SEC’s fault! Fact is when the SEC has uncovered evidence of naked short selling, it has acted to enforce laws and issued fines, even to the likes of Goldman Sachs, UBS, Merrill Lynch and more. The problem is that the criminals are so sophisticated now, it’s like trying to stop illegal drugs from getting into the United States. For every one caught, 1000 more get through.
It was about a year ago, or more, that I had reported on various writers, claiming to be experts and bashing the hell out of MNKD. One as I recall claimed to have never missed a call on anything, and had what I considered at the time, ties to terrorists in the middle east. That may not only be true, it’s my point when it comes to what I uncovered looking into that writers background.
He was a member of an on-line and private (invitation only, via the Internet) GROUP, which consisted of hedge fund managers from multiple funds and their clients…and these writers …An online group which I believe had well over 100,000 members to its credit, working in concert to plan which companies to target, and which can include members from terrorist organizations, enemy Nations of the United States and even our own elected officials, law enforcement personnel or even the person sitting next to you. How can it be that every hedge fund billionaire I’ve ever heard speak, has lost money hand over fist for the past 20 or more years, yet their net worth continues to increase? THIS is how…
They are unregulated and operate not underground, but so above ground they are untouchable. Even the New York Stock Exchange is petitioning the S.E.C. to require that fund managers report their short positions, and the support for the proposed rule change is as missing there, as it is here, on stockshortdata.com.
When it comes to defending against a naked short attack, asking the SEC for help is futile. There are few ways to avoid it, or to survive it. Three raids that come to mind to exemplify survival are IBOC, SIRI and OSTK.
OSTK – CEO, Patrick Byrne went on the offensive when he learned of what was happening to his company stock, and fought back using the media to educate investors, regulators and the public on naked short selling. He named names, and filed lawsuits, and though the battle went on for probably a decade or more, and may be ongoing in some respects today, he prevailed. OSTK reached settlement agreements with most if not all of the lawsuits they filed. It was then and is now, a long, difficult and expensive route to take…and it can take its toll on a CEO and investors.
IBOC – With respect to the OSTK case, the naked short sellers would argue that the company was poorly run, to deflect the blame away from those counterfeiting the stock. IBOC had never had a negative quarter in its history, but saw $1.2 billion in market cap wiped out in the naked short attacks that targeted U.S. financial companies to start the recession, that it seems too many have all but forgotten.
Here’s what IBOC CEO Dennis Nixon told the SEC:
Mr. and Mrs. Mainstream America, in my view, is being abused. We lost $1,200,000,000 worth of value in our company in about 45 days.“
“…I still don’t understand why the short side of the market is allowed to issue shares at random, at will, at whim, without any kind of registration restrictions at all. In my case, in our company, we have a certain number of registered shares, and we’ve had to go through an exhaustive process through your agency to get those shares registered. We have to file proxy statements. We have to file annual reports. But somebody, at a whim, can go out and issue 11 million of my shares in 45 days without any of those requirements.”
“…I disagree with that because we’ve seen a pattern of over-voting. But I still get down to the fact that if … I want to issue 11 million more shares of my stock on the long side, I’ve got to go through a very diligent process, and a very exhaustive process, to do that. And under the short side of the market, they simply have expanded my shares to another 11 million shares. And they’ve imposed them on a market situation on a short period of time where there’s no effort being planned on the positive side of the market to acquire — to ensure any kind of orthodox issuance.”
“Most people, when they go out and have a new stock issuance, have road shows, promote the value of the company, all of those positive aspects in issuing shares. And I have had a stock that’s traded in the range of a couple of hundred thousand shares a day — some people have joked that my shares trade by appointment — and suddenly I’m trading at a million five and two million shares a day, and somebody in a short period of time dumps 11 million shares of stock on the market. There is no way in the world that that stock can be defended against loss. I can’t come out and make positive statements about my company because those would be forward looking comments and I’d be slapped down for that.”
“But the short side can create all kinds of speculative comments and issue negative reports and draw questions against the company. And in the bear market which we’ve just recently experienced, there’s almost no defensible position that a positive side of the market has. Nobody wants to listen to good news. They only want to listen to bad news. So there’s no defensible position on the long side.
…and there it is. Eight years after that meeting, we still have a landscape where companies must disclose when they pay for bullish articles, while short sellers can pay to have anything written and never disclose a thing. That can create a dozen fake names and write articles applauding themselves and quoting themselves as a real source. This is why I began this website and put the daily short data out there in spite of the attempts to suppress it.
The stage has already been set for not only a repeat of what happened, but worse. This time the market makers have an exemption that permits them to counterfeit stock, which is abused as I knew would happen from the moment I first heard of the absurdity. IBOC’s CEO took to the offensive as well, giving testimony at a round table discussion by the SEC, in which his was the only voice in the room, representing the interests of investors rather than the others which all represented their bottom lines and which were all part and parcel to the naked short problem to begin with.
SIRI – As OSTK and IBOC teach us that no stock is safe, whether the earnings exceed expectations or miss, or as was argued with SIRI, that the company had too many shares outstanding. SIRI management did next to nothing…at least publicly…to defend itself from the naked short attack that wiped out 20 billion from its investors. SIRI’s survival I maintain, was not as much attributable to Karmazin and Dr. Malone, as it was to its shareholders.
SIRI shareholders did something unprecedented and unmatched to this day: They came together and fought for their company. They did this by writing letters to the FCC to get the merger approved, starting websites that were pro-satellite radio, sending tips en masse to the SEC when issues arose, and as a result of their combined effort, the merger was approved, and so strong were they as a unit, that when push came to shove and it looked like bankruptcy was the only option, the CEO instead, put together a deal to save the company.
I’ll never forget the 180 degree turn David Faber did on his opinion of Satellite Radio, suddenly love, love loving it with Liberty involved after receiving a 50 % stake, which effectively doubled the number of shares that were outstanding prior to the deal, which Faber had used previously in his negative reporting on the company. It was a moment to behold, scumbag that he is…..and the rest of the CNBC shills for that matter., Best financial news money can buy….depending on which side of the camera you’re on. MNKD investors may want to record CNBC on a day a deal is announced for the sudden love fest the talking heads will have for MNKD and Afrezza that day.
I’m convinced there is only one way to stop a naked short sale attack. I’m talking about nipping it in the bud,…because in the end it’s either a sell out, or wipe out, and the terms can be horrific as time erodes. Maybe the next company I help will listen to me and save themselves the pain MNKD investors are now, all too familiar with…I wonder how many MNKD investors in retrospect would agree with this article today?