As a follow-on comment, I just noticed - there is a similar post over in the Amazon.com (AMZN) thread about derivates hedging by insiders in the internet stocks, causing massive selling - in this case, a huge PUT sale in Amazon stock. The point made was, there are only two AMZN stock holders - Bezos, and an Investment Bank - that would be large enough to make such a huge (6M contract) option sale, possible, without going naked (can you imagine ANYONE, even the Shiek, being naked 6M AMZN options;)? Reportedly the option sale was done through a European brokerage, to mask the source.
This is the sort of stuff Cramer was alluding to in his www.thestreet.com article recently -- derivatives hedges, locking in gains for insiders, dreamed up by Wall St. and executed on terms favorable to both them and the insiders (no skin off either's back), but having big ramifications on stock prices, out of the blue.
Makes sense! No real 'proof', though - just worth paying attention to any further news/articles/disclosures, to learn more about his sort of activity, IMHO. I know if I were an insider setting on several billion in unrealized gains in this environment, I'd be leaping at this sort of opportunity, which could be paid for with a small % of the unrealized profits - and that's all it would take to bring on the short-selling (hedging).
-Steve |
