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CYNK Short Squeeze Scam Costs Trader His Job
"My 10-year-old knew it was a scam. It was a complete joke," rages Tom Laresca - a market-maker at Buckman Buckman & Reid - who sold "pure madness" stock CYNK Technology short at $6 last week. Laresca assumed (reasonably so) that the SEC would suspend trading, sending the price towards zero. Despite Zero Hedge's initial exposure of this farce to the world (and the rest of the mainstream media's attention following), the SEC was slow and CYNK soared to $16, squeezing Laresca and forcing his firm to cut off his ability to hold positions - he plans to resign today. "I wish people would just not trade the stupid things."
As Bloomberg reports, a Wall Street trader said Cynk Technology Corp.’s (CYNK) 36,000 percent stock surge cost him his job, and he blames a short squeeze and regulators who didn’t halt the shares before the company’s value shot past $6 billion.
“The stock looked worthless, if there’s even a company behind it,” Laresca said. “My 10-year-old knew it was a scam. It was a complete joke.”
He sold it short last week around $6 -- which means selling stock you don’t own with a plan to buy it cheaper soon, pocketing the difference. Laresca figured the Securities and Exchange Commission would suspend trading, sending the price toward zero.
Instead of falling, the share price more than doubled the next day, July 9, starting the squeeze. Market-makers who had sold the stock short got nervous and scrambled to buy stock to close their positions, driving it even higher, Laresca said.
“If you’re short, you have to buy it within five days,” Laresca said of market-making rules. “That’s what was driving the stock higher.”
The SEC stopped trading two days later, citing concerns about the accuracy of information in the marketplace and “potentially manipulative transactions.”
That was too late, Laresca said, and slammed the SEC...
“When it goes from 6 cents to $16 and you haven’t done anything about it, I’m sorry but you fell asleep at the wheel,” he said. “Everybody knew it. How come they didn’t know it?”
While Cynk’s $6 billion paper valuation was unusual, spikes and crashes are common in the over-the-counter markets where it traded. Regulators bust alleged pump-and-dump scams there regularly. Many involve defunct companies, or shells, with shares that still trade. The SEC has suspended trading in at least 255 shells this year.
“You lure other people into the marketplace, whether they believe it’s legit or they’re just along for the pump and believe they can get out before the dump,” Sporkin said. “It’s like a big game.”
The end result of this farce... more unemployment...
Laresca said that his firm cut off his ability to hold positions after the Cynk fiasco and that he plans to resign today. He declined to say what the trades cost.
OTC Markets Group Inc., which runs the trading venue once known as the pink sheets, marks questionable stocks on its website to warn investors. It branded Cynk with a skull and crossbones. Cromwell Coulson, the trading venue’s chief executive officer, who predicted the SEC suspension, said the agency will eventually figure out what happened with Cynk.
“I wish people would just not trade the stupid things,” he said.
It's not just Laresca who has a major problem, as we noted previously - cost of carry on the short is adding up all the time CYNK is halted...
Case in point, this sad individual who on that bulletin board of epic retail investor comedy, Yahoo Finance, has explained their problem: it appears some brokers actually did allow shorting of CYNK, at a cost. A rather high and recurring cost it would appear.
Oops.
* * *
But all the other momo stocks trading at triple-digit P/Es are not stupid...? Or are they - according to Yellen?
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"I just wish people would not trade the stupid things". Like debt-backed fiat paper?
Don't try and short stupidity in a stupid world.
Being early is the same as being wrong. Sorry, punk. You knew what you were doing. You just overestimated the SEC.
Yes, this guy said he wishes people wouldn't trade the stupid things but he went short? So he was trading them. Basically, he thought he could still walk into this casino and come out a winner.
I bet Chelsea Clinton's hedge fund hubby made a bundle. This guys problem is that he isn't an insider.
Bagholder!
Regards,
Cooter
I bet the SEC made some nice money on this one.
Aaaaand,... that's what happens sometimes when you're picking up nickles in front of a steamroller...
Usually in the first chapter of every trader's auto biography I have ever read. There ability to remain stupid can extend beyond your ability to stay liquid.
I have a general question... Does Reg SHO apply to OTC (a.k.a. Pink Shit) stocks?
Didn't this guy have to do the usual "Locate" before shorting? What broker would give the OK to short after trying to do a Locate on this stock?
What about FTD for this shit?
Regulation SHO was announced by the SEC in July 2004. The rule includes a uniform "locate" requirement for short sales in all equity securities and a requirement for the firms to document what they have done to locate the securities. Regardless of whether the seller’s short position may be closed out by purchasing securities the same day, firms will need to document that they have borrowed or arranged to borrow the stock, or they have reasonable grounds to believe they can borrow the stock and deliver on delivery date.
He who sells what isn't his'n.
Pays the price or goes to prison.
Attributed to Jon Corzine.
I think I've found a pattern here. Beware of any stock that rhymes with "SINK."
For example; SYNK was at $18 in July of 2013, and is now trading around $2.50
That was easy.
p.s. OB1; Are you suggesting that shorting should be made illegal?
The low volumes despite parabolic increases scared me away... Usually the pumpers dump keeping a lid on parabolic spikes similar to what was seen here.. If you bought a million shares of sink at .01 would you not be selling way before it got to 6B market cap?
I'm thinking that the guy that owned millions of shares of cynk was asleep at the wheel of his yacht and when he finally checked his ticker symbol and shit his pants the SEC halted trading as soon as he put his million share market sell order in.
It absolutely applies. In a not so distant former life, I was a MM who sometimes picked up the occasional Bully (bulletin board) or Pink Sheet and traded it. Are they supposed to get locates? Yes or reasonably believe they can buy them back on the "open market". See the gaping, "I can drive a truck through this" intrepretation? "Well fuck yeah I can buy them back. I'll just take a few guys when it starts dumping and I'm flat - no problem" lol.
Market makers are told on one hand they can naked short in order to add liquidity while on the other being told they need to get locates. One of the requisites of being a bona fide market maker is being on the bid or offer like 75% of the time. Well, who the fuck is going to be on the bid 75% of the time, particularly if they are sellers? Who's going to be offer 75% of the time if they got a VWAP buy order? It's a FUCKING JOKE with a capital J. My guess is our little Dago Friend just decided to get short thinking it would get halted intraday and he'd make out like a bandit. Do the math. Get short 50K, 100Kor 200K of this pig @ $6 and watch it run to $20 and you're starting to get in real trouble if your dad's not the boss.
Thank you for the info.
The other piece of data I find unusual about this story is the position size this guy took on relative to the number of outstanding shares. That should have been a huge red flag.
What I've learned though the years is nothing matters more than the position size relative to account size and expected stop level / exit points. PS is even more important than where you get in or out.
"Greed" is a double edge sword
@gh0atrider,
You should read the post more carefully. It was Cromwell Coulson, the CEO for OTC Markets Group Inc., who said that -- Not Tom Laresca
There is always a chance, if you are lucky. But you still have to play to win. This time he lost.
If he did not know the risk, then he is stupid.
Tom Laresca may or may not be stupid. But, Tom did not make the comment regarding "stupid thangs"
One thing for sure, his timing was not optimal.
You, Sir, are a nice guy :)
I would marry you if you were a woman :)
Very probably Tom Laresca is not stupid. If he was, he wouldn't be where he is.
Wait a sec... Hi's out of a job after having made a trade in an ill-liquid short which he cannot cover because it's no longer tradiong...Was this not stupid is as stupid does? Just because someone is a "trader" don't imply smartness. He's in a world of hurt.
Wait a sec... Hi's out of a job after having made a trade in an ill-liquid short which he cannot cover because it's no longer tradiong...Was this not stupid is as stupid does? Just because someone is a "trader" don't imply smartness. He's in a world of hurt.
Counting on the SEC or ANY gov regulators to do their jobs sounds like a suicidal strategy to me....
I agree. In addition to counting on the SEC, bad timing and poor risk-management were Tom's biggest mistakes.
The Kelly Formula is not the best, but it is easy to calculate, and it would have limited Tom's position size.
This is how traders blow up and wind up selling used cars.
How about this:
DON'T TRADE. IT'S NOT A MARKET.
It is amazing how quickly Michael Lewis was ushered off the stage. Too many jobs depend on the charade.
Too true.
I would list the "stupid things" here, but I don't think my rheumatiz will allow me to type for 6 hours.
that doesn't leave much...
How much did his 10-year-old gamble?
It is only cool when a "market maker" invents more paper shares of a thing than exists and sells them in hopes of screwing the public. When said market maker gets his ass reamed, then it is a travesty for the SEC to deal with. The dude is a cry baby punk. He should resign.
Stupid things are okay as long as they last a long time.
It's long-term con-artists pointing their fingers at short-term con-artists, because they don't want the sheep scared off before they sharpen their own sheers.
"I wish people would just not trade the stupid things." Says the guy who traded the stupid thing.
Why is CYNK any different than BTC?
You should read the post more carefully. It was Cromwell Coulson, the CEO for OTC Markets Group Inc., who said that -- Not Tom Laresca
Maybe because BTC is not a company dumbass?
So sue the SEC. They happily sue anyone over the slight misplacement of a word in a footer. Sue them for negligence and "market manipulation".
He must have cost his firm alot of money for them to do what they did.
But don't worry folks, none of these paper-pushers will go bankrupt or to prison.
(good thing he made more than enough to retire 1000x over...)
Full faith and credit...
When has the SEC, Justice Dept, or any other fake enforcement agency ever been 'awake at the wheel'? Just give me one instance.
Only when average joes try to scam the system?
LIke Abacus? The bank that is, not the squid.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-31/mortgage-fraud-prosecuto...
"How am I going to cover my short...Scott Trade charges 12% margin interest"
How about selling some of your profitable stocks and putting enough money into your account to cover the margin? Or take the money out of your bank account earning .01% interest.
They wake up long enough to sue the playas after the fact so as to get their skim. All else is midget tranny porn.
When they can take individuals and small start-up firms for everything they're worth.
I shorted CYNK from $18.50 to $20.50. But I did not lose my job like this guy.
The real crime is the people who created this fraud of CYNK will get off scott free with billions of dollars. All hail our Oligarchy.
I see that Waddell and Reid is now Buckman, Buckman and Reid. They strike again.
waddell and rEEd, two e's.
close, though. you get the tungsten medal.
Let the buyer (or shorter) beware.
Forget Teen Spirit. There's some Malfeasance in the Ether.
Yeah, pump-and-dump greed ether...
Why are all these ZH posts followed by photographs of women indulging in sexual foreplay?
Is that a serious problem for you?
And the ads are selected on-the-fly based on what Google (and probably the NSA) knows about you and your internet history. So don't act like you've never seen anything like that before. I get a lot of ads for incontenence and male pattern baldness products as well as snake oil cures for imaginary diseases. They must know something about me that even I don't know.
I don't give a shit. It just makes halfway serious posts look ridiculous when ads as stupid as those follow some profound closing statement.
What NoDebt is saying is that you're getting ads based on your browsing history. If you don't want to see ads about sex then stop searching for it.
It always cracks me up when I hear people bitch about the ads they're getting. Tells you alot about their interests.
Exactly.
That's why I routinely search for stupid shit, like
CYNK
Country Music
Lawrence Welk
Deliverance movie trailers
Duck Dynasty
Accordion lessons
Tea Part Rules of Order
Vacations to Kansas
Tractor Pulling contests
... You get the idea ...
Everyone should do this - and do it often
I like my ads. I didn't know there were so many Kazhakstan women eligible for marriage, for example.
I was surprised to learn just how beautiful the women Krackastan really are
And what's amazing is that they're apparently identical twins with the Single Women Over 50 too.
Or you could just use Firefox and run the Ghostery plugin that blocks all that stuff. You will be amazed at the difference, all those ads go away, and the page will go faster. It won't help you with the whole NSA thing, but it will allow you to surf all the donkey porn or incontenance products you want without being reminded of it every time you go to another page with google ads. It is also telling that if you run ghostery and pause blocking, zerohedge has more trackers than literally any other website I have been to.
I have one browser for myself,
and a different browser for my girlfriend.
Occasionally, I use her browser, just to see what "pops up."
Works great for me, no ads at all. After all, who wants to see ads for "Used M-1's and surplus ammo" all day?!
This thread is getting funnier by the hour!
I get ads for those incontinence pads you place on furniture. How do they know I bought a new couch?
Lol, mine are "date arab women", "date asian women", "meet russian women", and "rich women standing by"! At least nothing like "find hot single guys today" has popped up...
You must have a special browser.
safari on a tablet. adblocker works when logged in, not when logged out.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This stupid muddafuker is a trader and he really thinks the SEC is going to step in there to protect him and act in an efficient manner. This is too funny, I can't stop laughing.
Agreed. This guy tried to take advantage and make money of an obvious scam and pump and dump, and he expected the gubbermint to step in and protect his risky trades, allowing him to make money through govt protection. The moral equivalent of a bailout, covering his ass when he took too much risk, thinking he could dip his toe into the scam and come out with a bunch of free money. Sorry dumbass, looks like you aren't 'too big to fail'. Fuckin hilarious.
This guy did an Ackman. Betting the SEC comes in and saves his ass. Well he got his ass handed to him.
This guy is fucking retarded on a whole new level..
1. Firs he trades it, while complaining he wished people didn't trade it.
2. Then he cries like a little girl, blaming his decisions on some government agency that didn't come in and prevent him from trading the stock...
Unbelievable that this is a grown man.
he broke the main rule: Everybody knows you never go full-retard...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y3FzVQi-R8
Following the example set by Teflon Barry.
Is an English speaking adult "retarded on a whole new level" if they can't parse a simple paragraph of English text?
You should read the post more carefully. It was Cromwell Coulson, the CEO for OTC Markets Group Inc., who said that -- Not Tom Laresca
that's an all-time classic. Is the pump and dump scammer who owns whatever the hell CYNK is/was (or isn't/never was) culpable at all in any kind of fraud or subject to any fines? Or does he just close shop and move on to the next scam?
People should go to prison for sure. This is the same kind of bucket shop bullshit which was one of the main reasons for creating the SEC in the first place. Jesse Livermore would have waited to short this flying pig though. Too bad this guiy is not that good of a tape reader.
What is that they say about steam rollers and nickels?
It's all one big steam roller now.
Wow, that was kind of scary.
:)
Did you ever do that thing as a kid: "Jinks, 1, 2, 3, you owe me a coke"??
When you have said the same thing as another kid, in unison, the first one to say "Jinks" gets the other one to buy them a coke.
The fun happens when you are both trying to say the Jinks thing, at the same time, thus the need to keep saying it faster and faster, over and over.
"Jinks!"
I'm a big girl now, I'd like a glass of red wine, please... ;-) The high fructose corn stuff, well, you know.
Hmm, try this: http://www.absinth.com/links/logan_fils_com.html
or this: http://www.gotmead.com/ (you could try brewing yer own!)
Well, picking up pennies in front of a steamroller has its dangers.
pods
But flash crash trades get cancelled.........the next day. Uh-huh.
Oh he lost big in the casino, cry me a fucking river.
I have no sympathy for any idiot that wanted to play one side or the other on this stock.
What happened to the fools that were long and the stock got halted? Same thing as cry baby Tom?
Clown tries to participate in and benefit from a pump and dump scam. Government agency doesn't take action to ensure clown benefits from said scam. Clown blames govenment agency.
If clown was part of a TBTF, there'd be a bailout.
What isn't shown is how TPTB's orchestrators likely took all the counter positions (billions of $' worth), and then directed the SEC to pick the right time for them to 'pull the plug', all done with heavy MSM coverage to max the take of fools like Tom. I don't doubt Tom listened to many an MSM blowhard explain how the SEC 'normally deals' with penny stock scams.
At the very least, if you are going to trade, do it based on models that take into account the predatory nature of the markets, including the fact that organized crime controls the regulatory bodies (ie: there are endless highly sophisticated conspiracies to defraud).
This failed trader was trading based on very incorrect information regarding the true nature of the SEC and the markets themselves, so it's not surprising he lost his bet. What a dummy - what a sheeple.
It's with examples like these that I am reminded of how useful it is to be a truther - it may be tough and isolating ('till you find other cool truthers in RL), but at least knowing more about the truth of our society and systems means getting scammed way less and adapting way better. I love it!
I have ZERO sympathy for this guy. He's a professional, and as a professional, should know where and where-NOT to stick his trading dick. These guys are a large part of the problem with their wreckless "yield chasing" shenanigans.
He should have payed the premium up front.
These guys are a large part of the problem with their wreckless "yield chasing" shenanigans.
Do you still think AUD has a date with 80? I do. It is a lot o role so I might take a date with CAD. Thoughts?
Yes, but not until later this year.(need more Fed. rate jawboning) The usd/cad long could be a good play, especially with oil coming down. I don't trade it regularly though.
I'm with you. This guy knows CYNK is a scam, so he's going to make money off the fact it's a scam. Then when the scam isn't exposed fast enough, he loses his money, and now he's pissed? Just like Bernie Madoff's "victims." Everybody knew you don't make 25% a year, year after year, so Madoff was obviously running a scam. They just all thought the scam was insider trading, so they thought they could be super-kewl insiders too and get a bunch of money. When it turned out that yes, Madoff was a scam, but instead of insider trading it was made-up nonexistent trading, then all of a sudden they're all defenseless widows and orphans who have been piteously victimized? So Madoff's in prison until we're all driving our flying cars to our living pods at the bottom of the sea, but murderers and rapists get out in 20 years.
When you know somebody is a motherf*cker, you have to expect him to f*ck his mom.
"When you know somebody is a motherf*cker, you have to expect him to f*ck his mom."
Until today, I never understood the origin of this term, just thought it was an incesty kinda thing or a man who has intercourse with mothers. Kinda obvious in retrospect. Thanks.
The SEC is supposed to Protect you from self-inflicted Stupidity and Greed ?
You tried to make "Easy Money" Selling Short to another "Sucker", and it turns out you were the "Sucker"......
Obviously you don't know the first thing about Shorting, for if you did, you would have never touched it.....
That stock, and others like, are "Sucker" plays for BOTH Long and Short.....
Stop Whining.......
If you don't recognize the "fish" at the poker table, then it's probably you.
He should have gone long corruption instead.
Yen Cross, Exactly......
Poor banker boy .... not.
this is no different than being short the sp 500. its a scam.
What a bonehead! He's a prop trader and he gets stuck shorting a pink sheet, for a non company, that shoots up 33,000%? Why any sane person would short a pink sheet on that kind of volume...
When of course you could short NEWL on the NASDAQ at 10x the volume. Jeezuz, another EPIC fail by SEC.
"I wish people would not trade the stupid things"
Then why the fuck are YOU trading it?
I don't always make bad trades, but when I do, I blame the SEC. Stay liquid my friend.
His name is Jonathan Goldsmith....the dos equis guy...dont ask me about his personality..knew him years back...
but your comment is pretty funny...
I don't feel any sympathy for the trader for sure.
Another banker suicide.
all equities are a scam these days.
It's the steroid era - the records mean nothing!
From "forcing his firm to cut off his ability to hold positions - he plans to resign today. "
it looks like that one commenter here who lamented his short position now has ample grounds and public statements to pursue a lawsuit. But suspect he will be given his money back quickly so the point may be moot.
He must have thought SEC stood for Shorting Excessively and Compulsively...
Many a slip between the DP and the lip.
Trading's so simple a 10-year old kid could do it...with about 20 years practice.
I blame Zerohedge. In addition this should teach traders to hedge their risks. After all: "the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent." Why anyone would commit appreciable capital to a position with potential infinite losses on an OTC scam stock is beyond me.
Dude, remember it's never a big deal when you're using other people's money.
Even shorting stupid things is deeply dangerous in the Shithawk Carnival.
His biggest mistake was in assuming there were 'rules'...
Jump Motherfuckers! JUMP!!
Yeah, I think I speak for everyone here when I say that I don't feel a shred of sympathy for this fckin retard.
But 12% of nothing is nothing so what's the problem?
Doing 'God's Work' is never easy.
The Neo-Zionist Order (Who Rules Your Rulers)
1.) Nelson: AH-HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2.) Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME TOMMY? TOOOOOOMMMMMMY......TOOOOMMMMYY....YOU WAS MY BROTHER, MY ONLY BROTHER! I LOVED THAT DUDE MY BROTHER!!!! (HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE)
3.) Dumb is as dumb does.
4.) TYPICAL AMERICAN FINANCIAL ATTIDUDE....BAIL MY ASS OUT...I FUCKED UP, DIDNT USE MY HEAD, KNEW THE RISKS, FUCKED UP BUT IT'S NOT MY FAULT!
"NOT MY FAULT"- Dick(head) Fuld, AIG, GS, UBS, The Fed, Lehman, etc. etc. etc.
5.) REPEAT 4.
6.) "loving every minute of it (this)" Lover Boy
He should read this book to help him through it all:
http://www.amazon.com/Want-Help-Story-Cancer-Depression/dp/1434901270
Cynk is a yiddish word-concept originating from Polish, menaing roughly -One thief giving another an advice about a good hit-
I keep imagining a sharp Romanian 14 yo, buying a million shares of CYNK at 0.06 on margin and dumping them at $15 - then buying an island. In case you haven't figured this out yet - this ain't investing - it's gaming - best played with OPM.
Let me get this right. He knew it was a scam but shorted it anyway? LOLOLOLOLOLOL!
okay class, let's do a little brain teaser in case nobody was paying attention to the Laresca pain trade lesson from last week. let's say YOU KNEW that the fed would begin the largest bond buying program in the history of the world (aka QEinifinity) late in 2012 when the 10y was trading at 1.6%. Would you a) buy bonds or b) short bonds? (NO FAIR CHEATING BY LOOKING AT TODAY'S PRICES!!)
Okay, now here's a hard one. The fed says they are going to taper. Will that cause a) rising rates or b) falling rates?
That is all for now. Good luck!
I cheated and looked. Recently issued 10Y are yielding 2.58%. So, when the Fed announces it is going on a buying spree, prices drop? OK, Buzzsaw, I took the bait, reel me in and tell me why supply and demand do not apply to the Fed. Is it magic?
it is a common misconception that the fed cares about bond prices and the purpose of QE is to drive up bond prices in order to make stocks look attractive. they don't, and that supposed mechanism is a hoax. QE1 and QE2 hardly changed bond prices at all. The reaction to QE3 was an actual drop in bond prices. What they wanted was another speculative stock market rally. The only thing QE did/does is instill confidence for people to buy stocks. It is the only thing they ever cared about. Their feigned concern about price stability, unemployment, and all the rest is a ruse. There is no market, there never has been. The only difference between now and before now is that before now it was stealth qe. now it is blatant qe. it will go back to stealth qe soon enough. there is no market, there is only the fed. bond prices will magically follow the path they have since 1985. nothing in nature moves in a straight line so why have bond prices moved straight down for 30 years? the invisible hand.
Does anyone know how the guy on the island, the sole and only CYNK employee/owner, ran this spectacular scam?
If Goldmans were short CYNK to early the Fed would have cancelled their trade and they would have walked away
do you have any grey poupon?
but of course!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeG3dwk8D6w
the squid poops on everything!
That's the truest statement of the day.
seeing as how the sec WORKS FOR GS the trades would have been profitable
burned. badly..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLaCqrisEac
Is this guy going to sue the SEC now for his losses?
The smartest guys on earth...
If you like your CYNK short positions, you can keep your CYNK short positions.
Well, at least for FIVE trading days!
Why on earth would someone naked short a non-reporting pink sheet company with volumes that thin? The scammers were obviously trading a very limited number of shares with themselves (at leats at first); nearly all of the free trading shares were almost certainly sitting on paper in a box somewhere pending the scammers' decision to cash out.
Why? Because they're as dumb as Brobama .
sore loser
"My 10-year-old knew it was a scam. It was a complete joke," rages Tom Laresca
And you Tom thought you could 'time' the market...and JU GOT OWNED!!!
Why not invest in something safer like AMZN? 500+ P/E ratio.
Couple of things....
This guy was likely pure prop. All he did was hurt himself and his firm. I hate Wall Street as much as the next (while ironically working on the Street msyelf) but to talk about these guys like they are hurting the general public is pure bullshit. Some guy jockeying a OTC Markets terminal is not doing extensive damage to all those po l'il retail investors you all seem to fancy being innocent and shit.
I've seen a few determined MMs (myself included) singelhandedly crush a promo (promotional pump and dump) and send it into a death spiral back to sub-penny. You wanna see how real money is made? Get short 5MM shares of a .75 pump and dump and watch it unravel to a dime within minutes. Get covered and you can literally make millions in a matter of SECONDS. I've seen it happen. Millions made in minutes. All they're doing is hastening the demise of a promo that was destined to go higher and bring in additional momo chasing dumb money. Telling me you wouldn't do the same? Bitch, please.....
I understand there is a lot of antipathy for traders and the Street, but most of these poor bastards trading prop don't make shit (despite what they'd have you believe) with $5K monthly Bloomberg terminal charges, rent and piss poor payouts, etc. Then add in Reg SHO which I mentioned in a previous thread and suddenly making money trading pure risk is a lot harder than most of you imagine. You get out a million or two, build a solid position then get the tap on the shoulder to sell it down/suck it in and take a loss only to watch the position turn into a $50K winner minutes after you unloaded/bought your last round lot.
Although impressive as hell, it is not the $.06 to $18.50 run that is so interesting to me.
It's $.06 to say $2.50 back on June 17 on a couple 100k shares. That's already a nice little taste. That's 30x and was anyone squawking about it then?
In my dark moments, this is how I imagine the CIA funds itself. It's nearly indistinguishable from a money laundering scheme.
imo, anyone trading in these rigged markets is stupid, but those in the know making out like bandits, that they are.
He is a sorry looser.
I remember years ago the VW stock thing in Europe.Still laugh about it.
Announce on a Friday afternoon that Audi has increased its holding from 40 to 70%.
Anyone with VW stock could have made a killing that weekend.
Looks rough for Portugal.Can't see how the Deutsche bank will be able to cover this one.
Who has the other side of this Espiritu Santo CDS?
This reminds me of 2008 where they said "Bear Stearns? All's great! No dramas!".
"Lehman Bros? No problem!".....yada,yada,yada.....
But everyone gets a bailout, bail-in, or bonus now. EVERYONE.
Traders beware, short trades must be handled like anthrax, locked in a freezer, stored in an area where no one should have access.