But it’s hard not to pin Tuesday’s action in Apple to [Seabreeze Partners hedge fund president Douglas] Kass’ Twitter posts or to see how he profited from them. The stock was down. He tweeted the split rumor. The stock went up. He sold shares while tweeting that his rumor was baseless.
Good on Philip Elmer-Dewitt for calling this like he sees it.
Isn’t that illegal or sanctionable by the SEC?
I have an idea. Send the guy to jail for doing crap like this. Oh what am I saying. I keep forgetting that I shouldn’t expect rational behavior in this world. Boy do I feel stupid.
If I had to guess, he consulted his attorney before doing something so blatant and there will probably be no repercussions. How many investors and traders do you ever see convicted of a crime?
How the fuck can this be;
1) possible?
2) legal?
Elmer-Dewitt is doing some very fine reporting in recent months. Bravo.
Still, how much easier would Apple have it, were it to go private?
it has to be proven that he knew the rumor was false before disseminating it. That is hard to prove.
The problem is, the stock is off $250 from another hedgie who was short doing the same thing… repeatedly, admittedly. In today’s world it is not illegal, only immoral.
Manipulating stock price for personal gain probably is illegal, it just isn’t actionable.
just wrote my congresswomen, the only way to end this is too shout loud and often to your reps. The cracks are starting to show. Senator Warren is hammering away at these scumbags we have to have her back.
Let’s also put sufficient blame on the media for unquestioningly repeating the rumor. They helped spread the wildfire.