INVT moving, picked some up, check out this article:
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Are Market Makers In Trouble With INTV Short Positions?
By Jack Burney
06/16/2000 08:15 AM CST
Investors charge that Market Maker tactics to profit greatly from shorting an OTCBB stock are backfiring.
MMs may
have short positions totaling 9-million shares they can?t cover, and have reportedly taken desperate steps
to avoid
financial catastrophe.
The stock in question is InvestAmerica, Inc./Optica Communications (OTCBB: INTV), and Investor John
Hight says
MMs ?are holding this company hostage.?
Certain MMs approached INTV last December, Hight said, ?to make a deal for INVT to sell them millions
of shares
directly to bail them out of their short position.?
INTV got SEC permission and offered to issue MMs shares, but above the then-market price. ?Why
dilute the float of
his company to bail out crooked, stupid MMs?? Hight said. ?the MMs wanted shares at a big discount to
bail themselves
out, so a standoff ensued. The popular belief is that ever since March, MMs have been trying to strangle
shares out of
investors to cover their large short position (under $2) and to punish INVT.?
Hight?s cursory review of trading activity in INVT -- especially over the last 30 days -- shows that MMs
are not making
a "market", they ARE the "market".
The irony of it all: ?No matter how low they drive the price, new buying comes in to bury them deeper.
There has never
been a technical sell-off day in INVT that I'm aware of -- and I watch it daily,? Hight said.
Here is a fiber optics networking company whose stock is being grossly manipulated downward by MMs
who are
naked-short some 9 million shares which they accumulated late last year. This short position, the
company claims to
anyone who telephones them, is responsible for the company's stock not trading on the Frankfurt
Exchange despite
having successfully listed there some 3 weeks ago.
The company claims that MMs refuse to sell shares to Frankfurt because Frankfurt is prohibited from
trading shorted
shares. The sellers must, by law, possess certificates, and the MMs don?t have them.
Some accuse MMs of deliberately trying to choke INTV to death. With the bizarre trading activities going
on ? large
buys at ask, sharp stock price drops ? manipulation is about the only explanation.
Investor Michael McKay would like ?to throw INVT into the ring of severely manipulated stocks. This
stock almost hit
$12 and now rests at $1.40. A buy yesterday of 386,000 shares did not even move the ask price.?
Investor Elaine Hill complained of bashers and blatant manipulation of INVT stock. ?Shareholders have
been frightened
into selling by false and misleading posts on message boards and price manipulation of this stock.?
Investor William Henning says ?INVT is very heavily shorted and the stock is taking a dive.?
There?s more to this story, and OTCNN will continue to pursue it.
But one thought surfaces inevitably. With stupid tricks like this, the MM image of shrewd
behind-the-scenes geniuses is
rapidly fading. Are these guys so dumb they can?t make an honest buck? ÿ
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