Volkswagen is an anti-example of what speculators do. They actually got screwed big time when VW started manipulating its own stock price thorugh OTC options entered into with several investment banks. The hedge funds and "speculators" were on the receiving end.
Alexandre is exactly right, there are a number of US based domestic hedgies that lost up to $500 million on that abortion of a trade.
Don 't kid yourself. They were on the receiving end only because they got outsmarted, but they tried to be on the "giving" end. Had that not happened, VW stock price would have gone the way of BS and Citi. They tried to break the company, and they almost did, but it wasn't the OTC options that saved the day, it was Porsche.