RE: Short action
Ron,
I'm not sure we've seen the last of the shorts by any
means. The first time I bought Iomega stock, before
the early 1996 run-up, it was at a price that is
now below fifty cents per share after all the splits.
There was very considerable shorting at those price
levels, before it went to about $28 in today's prices,
killing some of the more spectacular shorters in the
squeeze. My guess, though, is that there are still
vintage shorters out there who want the price to go
to zero or, failing that, to stay as close to zero
as they can push it for as long as possible. When
the price was under $4 a while back, there were
still shorters on this thread trashing away at
the company.
You're right about most of the shorters, though,
the ones who shorted more recently. But I'm guessing
that there are still some very, very long-term
shorters out there. There was a time when I suspect
they were shorting at the end of trading almost
every day to drive down the closing price, but
I think that they're now too stunned by the recent
successes and new product announcements to sustain
that kind of behavior. They got a little window of
opportunity with the announcement that 99Q1 would
be flat earnings, but other than that, there's no
good FUD opportunity at the moment, leaving those
long-term shorters in a position to affect the
price only by getting caught in a short
squeeze. <g> The longer they can delay
the rise in this stock's price, the lower
the constant-dollar cost to them of cashing
out their short positions, because of the time
value of money. As time goes on, though, their
effect on the stock's short-term price swings
is diminishing.
Correct me if I'm wrong, all you experts on
shorting.
Cheers, Tom (long IOM) |
