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Technology Stocks : Globalstar Memorial Day Massacre -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Jon Koplik who wrote (20)5/9/2000 11:42:00 PM
From: UncleverName  Respond to of 543
 
Jon... sounds like you are! LOL!



To: Jon Koplik who wrote (20)5/10/2000 2:32:00 AM
From: Maurice Winn  Respond to of 543
 
Jon, I don't fancy the idea of eating hypothecated cereal.
<...if you do not hear the word "hypothecated" all the time (when eating a bowl of cereal, for example) ... then, I guess you must not be married to a lawyer.> Or do you mean lawyers' cereal goes "Snap, Crackle, Hypothecate"? - I hope the apostrophe in "lawyers'" is really cool.

Meanwhile, I received this PM <This idea of yours does seem like fun, but will it not get you into trouble for manipulation? I am not posting this publicly for fear of being accused of being a short. Again, like you I have nothing in principle against shorts, just don't want to have to defend myself when I'm not.

I did try to sell Palm short and buy 3com simultaneously when Palm first came out. It couldn't be done. I think I may have tried one other time. If so, I was unable to.

On the other hand, and I must get to work, I just heard a report of a band that was sued for using a company's name. They lost in court, but got fans to attack the company through investment boards. They claim they drove the stock down substantially, so much that the company relented. There was no talk of the SEC.
>

This is what I replied:

I think the huge short interest is the stock manipulation. This will just return things to normalcy [maybe]. Anyway, people are allowed to say what they think, nominate stocks, advise against buying, or selling, and recommend all sorts of financial manoeuvres. What is illegal is for financial houses to do sneaky manipulative things to move the price in their favour.

This is all out in public and I believe it's in my financial interest and that of Globalstar to have the price up. So just as it is manipulative but not illegal if I was to persuade the company to buy it's own stock back, which would raise the price, it is not illegal to suggest to people that they repossess their stock!

Anyway, being the instigator, I'll not buy or sell at the time because I like to stay well inside any laws!

It's all in public which is another major argument.

I'm not worried. It might actually help Globalstar get better financing terms now that I think about it. The price might go up quite a lot and stay there. Why should I be penalized because some non-investor shorts sold stock they don't own and artificially lowered the price?

Anyway, it's fun. Why should shorts have all the fun?

I also wrote this in another PM:
----------------------------------------------------------
It might be that no lawyers would warn me so your warning and thoughtful words are appreciated.

I don't believe people acting in public are not allowed to decide independently whether they like a financial suggestion.

The difference between making a general suggestion to move stock to a cash account and suggesting it be done in or around one particular day is just a matter of when they do it.

I sure wouldn't suggest it if I thought it illegal!

I definitely don't think shorts inferior. I've had a look at the idea and in fact think they are superior in that the conceptual framework to successfully do it is far harder that simply deciding whether a company is good and buying the stock! Shorts have to understand the company and then go on to figure out the timing of share price moves, risks of ups and downs and absurdly complex variables.

I think speculators, shorts etc are essential to stability in financial systems. They buy or sell when others are going nuts, thus reducing peaks and troughs, which damage financial stability.

It was somebody else who said Shorts are UnAmerican [which of course to me is no bad thing, being UnAmerican myself] and implied that they are negative people. Shorts will have saved many people from paying $60 a share instead of the peak $53 a share. Those people should be very grateful to Shorts. I agree with you on that.

I don't have a web site, and neither would I want to set up a counter. That might make me a bit more than an idea promulgator and could perhaps be called a conspiracy. The information gleaned would be useless anyway as people would simply lie about how many shares they have.

As far as I'm concerned, it's all in public and people can all act in any way they like. I'll not buy or sell during the next few weeks anyway, just in case somebody did think it was an illegal money-making game.

I don't see anything wrong with giving Shorts another variable to contend with = the power of communication on the Web. It's a fact of life now. Longs have to contend with Shorts getting a call to "Sell this POS short folks and make a mint - it's hit a top, so grab it while you can". Brokers issue "Buy, sell, hold, neutral etc" all day every day on particular stocks and do it in private to big groups of people. Any call to action could be construed as price-fixing. Say I said, "BUY NOW EVERYONE, IT'S GREAT!" and they did [as happens with George Gilder's reports]. I think the "Winn Effect" will be insignificant compared with the "Gilder Effect" and he actually secretly sends it out to private, paying subscribers who make a lot of money by being first to buy the stock before the information is public.

That's how I see it. I really hope I'm not doing anything illegal or even unethical, or even simply stupid!

I think it's fun! It will free up the log-jam of lack of shares to short so improve liquidity in Globalstar shares. Alan Green$pan does that anytime he likes and nobody calls him an illegal manipulator.

Stuff like that.

I reckon I have a good defence there!

Maurice



To: Jon Koplik who wrote (20)5/10/2000 2:59:00 AM
From: Maurice Winn  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 543
 
If this stream surges to the top of the SI Hot Subjects list, that will help publicity and maybe people will buy the stock at these absurdly low prices and be sure of making a profit and obviate [which is a very good word] the need for Globalstar to raise funds by issuing new stock at absurdly low prices.

So, if you have any blabbermouth suggestions, make yourself at home.

Maurice



To: Jon Koplik who wrote (20)5/10/2000 5:57:00 AM
From: Maurice Winn  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 543
 
Jon, only 5 working days [give or take a day] before the dehypothecation of Globalstar catches some Shorts! After the 17th, some of them must get caught unless the volume traded rapidly increases.

Shorts will eat their cereal tomorrow and hear "Snap, Crackle, Hypothecate!".

Meanwhile, The Great Globalstar Memorial Day Massacre is Number 3 on the SI Blabbermouth Hot List and Day Traders will notice that there is a fortune about to be made by somebody.

Check out that short interest folks.

Meanwhile, here's a really good article by UpsideToday.com on "Seizing the Wireless Future".
upside.com

Mqurice

PS: Ooops, this post made this stream go to Number Two on the Leader Board. One more post would make it number one. Anyone want to do it? You'll have to hurry.