i hope my comment was not misleading. ratigan came on later in the afternoon sticking up for his personal friend, rocker. i doubt it is available...it was more off the cuff than an interview.
Here is a position paper from a CEO representing small business. http://www.advancedsmallbusiness.org/positionpaper.htm Read it, and compare what he says with what happened to OSTK. Some of it sounds like some of you posters. Here are some excerpts for those of you who won't read the whole thing, but will bash me anyway. 1. the damages: When just looking at approximately 5000 small and micro-cap companies that have an average issued and outstanding share total of 40 million shares, and multiplying that by an average $5 loss on share value, we estimate the losses to investors to be at least a trillion dollars annually. 2.Method: continuously attacking the companies on Internet financial chat boards, websites, and through other highly illegal and unethical means. A Dow Jones newswire article reported on these so-called ........................ 2b. Bashers will also send messages to the SEC, and other government agencies that might affect a companiesâ business, with accusations of wrong doing by the company, and its officers and other employees. As a result, a company might get an inquiry from a well-meaning employee of the Better Business Bureau, FDA, NASD, the exchange the company trades on, or various others. The bashers use multiple aliases, anonymous email accounts, roving IP addresses and public access points, as well as other methods to avoid being traceable. 3. Tactics: what they post: Don't even bother trying to ID the account. It was created at the New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue location, and is only accessed through proxy servers.â âWho are we? Your worst nightmare! â âImagine an anonymous team of professional researchers and writers with a network of mainstream contacts and all the investigative tools the Internet has to offer digging into your scam. Imagine a flash mob featuring you popping up overnight at twenty anonymous sites and sent to major news services via a news feed.â âHere we are. And with anonymous proxy servers and public hard-wired and wireless Internet access points, there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. By the time you intimidate one of our free host sites to kill a report; it has been copied and mirrored ten times.â THESE ARE SMALL COMPANIES, UNLIKE OSTK. IT SURE LOOKS EXACTLY WHAT PAT WAS TALKING ABOUT....WHITE PAPERS TO AUTHORITIES, DOW JONES NEWSWIRE, EXTORTION. USE YOU HEADS, FORGET ABOUT YOUR PREJUIDICES, AND THINK FOR YOURSELVES. WE ALL HAVE THE PROBLEM. WE WHO HAVE BEEN SCREWED, AND THOSE WHO ARE ABOUT TO CAUGHT. THERE IS A MONEY BUFFETT TOMORROW, OR THE NEXT DAY, OR WHATEVER CALLED OVERSTOCK.COM. IT IS THE ULTIMATE PAPER CHASE. I'VE GIVEN YOU MOST OF THE INFORMATION YOU NEED. IT IS UP TO YOU TO TRADE IT PROFITABLE IF YOU SO WISH.
1. I guess if it weren't for short sellers stocks would never decline and investors would never take a loss right? What about the benefit to investors when the shorts cover and drive the stock up? 2. I have no sympathy for anyone who buys or sells because of something they read on a chat board. 2b. I have faith the SEC can differentiate between a spurious claim and a meritorious one. Do the stocks usually get halted on those BBB inquiries? With regard to the money buffet, just make sure its not you that is on the menu.
Im sure enron and worldcom said the same things, that they failed becuase of short sellers not because fundamentally their businesses were flawed
moderators its time to send this thread to chit chat. its beginning to sound like a paranoid personal agenda.
If OSTK is fundamentally unsound then let it go to ZERO in a legal fashion by more sellers selling genuine stock than buyers buying genuine stock. This is DIFFERENT from the illegal practice of selling electronic counterfeit stock short! The issue here is principle - the integrity of the markets. Get it?
EXACTLY. THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL STATEMENT.... and let's review another recent internet high-flyer that underwent similar short-selling "problems"....albeit with a less rancorous CEO. http://www.javazon.com/test/TZOO-081205.gif If a stock truly has value, eventually the buyers will come into the marketplace and OVERWHELM the short sellers. If THAT doesn't happen, then only one explanation remains: THAT STOCK IS OVERVALUED !
You need to straighten out your facts. A: Byrne never claimed that "him and family owns 98% of the float". He included the top ten institutional holders in ownership of the vast majority of the OSTK float. B: Byrne personally holds 5,830,632 shares. http://finance.lycos.com/qc/research/topholders.aspx?symbols=NASDAQ:OSTK My first reaction to this story was 'Why bother going after short sellers. Make money, and your share price will go up naturally.' ...Then I realized that if I were the victim of of almost 6 million counterfeit shares getting dumped on the market, 'journalists' conspiring to drive down the share price on their own timetable, and to add insult to injury, the damn SEC decides to investigate ME instead of the actual lawbreakers- well, I'd be pretty damn pissed too!
Y'all are too emotional on this. IMHO, the important facts seem to be- 1. Total issued shares = +/- 17 million 2. Shares controlled by CEO/friends etc= +/-8 million shares 3. Shares sold short = +/-8 million If you are willing to assume the guy wouldnt get all ballistic on TV unless the shares he & his pals control, eg, they are going to demand certificate & delivery NOW, that means- 4. Shorts are +/-90% of available shares, therefore, if holders of the balance want to get higher prices, which may be their fiduciary responsibility, eg, for a mutual fund, they, too, will ask for shares. Look at the volume action when he was yakking, at 2.49PM, someone bot +/-78,000 shares in ONE minute and the shares jumped from +/-45.5 to 47.2 - now consider if all the shorts start to cover. He also claims to have affidavits from people involved, so, he has done some homework. It'd be real cool if he was right and this sucker popped to 100!!!