A CNBC anchor's friendly hint (to keep monitoring twitter) and a well-timed (SEC reg pre-empted) tweet is all one needs to generate a 'healthy' 7900% gain 'trading' stocks in the US markets. Courtesy of the much-hyped expectations that @Carl_C_Icahn would tweet his next big idea, when the activist dropped the buy signal heard around the world yesterday, the lucky holders of the $480 AAPL Aug Calls saw their position appreciate from a cheap bet at $0.20 to a magnificent $16.00... not a bad return for 140 characters work...
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and the SEC pre-empting PR from the day before (that had CNBC so excited)...
On April 2, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") issued a report in which it provided guidance to issuers regarding the use of social media to disclose material non?public information.
Our Chairman, Carl C. Icahn, intends to use Twitter from time to time to communicate with the public about our company and other issues.
Mr. Icahn's Twitter handle is @Carl_C_Icahn.
It is possible that the information that Mr. Icahn posts on Twitter (which may include information regarding companies in which we and/or Mr. Icahn have or may be contemplating an investment position) could be deemed to be material information.
Therefore, in light of the SEC's guidance, we encourage investors, the media, and others interested in our company to review the information that Mr. Icahn posts on Twitter in addition to the information that we disclose using our investor relations website (http://www.ielp.com/investor.cfm [6]), SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls and webcasts.
Charts: Bloomberg