I always discount the "shorty" effect in penny stocks. I've heard anecdotal evidence of shorts getting squeezed in pennies, but have never witnessed it myself, especially in situations where people have insisted it was going to happen. Usually, I see the opposite happen.
I have seen the short squeeze effect work to my advantage many times in much larger issues, though. When I'm reading news about the likes of AOL, AAPL, INTC, etal (I prefer techs), I take the outstanding short position into account when determining whether to buy and what my sell price should be (I almost always decide the sell price before I buy).
I don't doubt for a second that some (many, probably) penny stocks do get shorted, and that some of them even end up being illegally naked shorted (MMs short more shares than the float), but because of the outcome of certain other stocks (whose tickers I won't mention) whose fans claimed a pending short squeeze of stellar proportions, I tend to shy away from short squeeze stories in penny stocks.
This one, however, is priced high enough that I can see some motivation for bearish MMs to short heck out of it. There would be considerable money to be made.
It sounds like with recent developments, there could also be financial pain experienced by the same people, if they exist. <g> |
