PistolPete, thanks for the special website link. I found the reason #1 to call in certificates quite interesting and courtesy of that site i paste it below: (this is about that TGSK stock but could well apply to any stock):
1. 3 days (March 30-April 1) -- On day 1 and 2, stock went from ~.90 to
~1.40. Surprise, surprise. On day 3, the MMs knocked it back to 1.00.
2. 2 days (April 7-8) -- After the above drop on April 1, the stock trended
back up again on low volume up to ~1.20. Then surprise, surprise. On April
7, volume again surged to over 800k as the MMs took her from 1.20 down to
an intraday low of .80. On April 8, volume again traded over 800k as they
kept her pinned at ~.95.
3. 8 days (April 22 - May 5 (actually only 8 out of 10 of these consecutive
days traded above 800k; the other 2 traded at what looks like 650k and
700k)) -- Between April 9 and April 21, TGSK began trending up again on low
volume. Surprise, surprise. On April 22, volume picked up again in an
effort to knock it back down. Only this time it didn't work. The first 2
efforts above succeeded very quickly. This time it didn't. So we saw a
sustained volume effort over 10 days to try to knock the price down. It
still wasn't working. And then . . . :) . . . Coastal Securities stepped up
to the plate. Volume dove and we have seen a HUGE uptick the last 2 days.
Am I making this clear for everybody here? Let me piece this together.
Somebody identified our Jersey City boys (the 7 MMs who all work within a 1
mile radius in Jersey City -- 5 in the same BUILDING). Hill Thomson was one
of them. Hill Thomson was one of the first 4 MMs to begin making a market
in TGSK. 1 of the other 4 actually was a MM from the original shell company
who was simply making a market to churn his inventory of shares (so really,
that MM doesn't count much). The other 2 I believe were Sharpe and Paragon.
I have only heard of Paragon (mostly negative) but I am well aware from
some other contacts that Sharpe is a vicious shorter of bb stocks. So out
of our original 4 MMs, 1 was simply ridding himself of shell stock, 2 are
known to me as shorters of bb stocks, and the 4th is one of our Jersey City
boys. It is no surprise that this unsavory group was the first to infect
TGSK -- looked to them like an easy target. Some internet hype . . . a new
issue . . . not much volume . . . small float . . . looked like easy
pickins for these manipulative bastards. They could assert control over it
early and drive it up and down at their leisure and make money at the
expense of us "stupid" small investors going each way. At this point, the
pr campaign kicked in by TGSK and these MMs probably said "Good, we will
let that bring in volume, raise the price as we short it, and then we get
to shake them all out." Which is exactly what they did as they took her
down on that first drive from 1.40 down to 1.00. But funny thing was that
buying was still coming in. And the company actually began to look quite
promising. Word was spreading quickly about TGSK and we all know how
aggressive Colin's pr campaign was becoming.
Well, the stock began ticking back up again much to the dismay of these
short MMs. Interestingly, about this time many new MMs began stepping onto
the scene. Many of us thought "Good, that will tighten the spread and make
it a more competitive market." WRONG. Take a look at the Jersey City boys
all in the same building. When we went from 4 to 20 MMs, it wasn't for the
good of TGSK. Most of these MMs were all WORKING FOR THE SAME SHORT
POSITION.
This has been one huge game of "Hot Potato". You see, shorts can't carry a
large naked short position for any significant period of time. But if they
covered, they'd take a huge loss and their trading accounts would be
greatly diminished. So they bring in these tiny little outfits (like the
MMs all in the Jersey City building) to "pass the hot potato". Shift the
short position from one MM hand to another and "carry the short position".
Because technically, these other smaller MMs were "different firms", the
short position could mask who was trading what to whom and to where. But
make no mistake about it, these MMs were all unified. The increase in MMs
has not been an increase in reputable MMs. It has been an increase in
sleaze MMs to help carry the short position. Remember that 250k after-hours
trade we saw at .80 (significantly under the bid)??? Can you say "pass the
hot potato"? Starting to get the picture? The original short position got
caught taking a bad position on a good company and they had to call in some
reinforcements to help them out.
But the bad news for the shorts continued. Colin and Sitra have been
RELENTLESS with spreading the word on TGSK to the investment community. And
in the same breath the company filed for SEC fully reporting status,
announced damned impressive 1Q 1998 earnings, announced a buyback, and
announced a no-strings, very favorable rate loan from Bristol. Oh, and
guess what. Insiders began pulling their certs. As did many investors.
Other investors began placing their shares in "safekeeping" (same effect as
pulling certs). All of this forced the MMs back into yet another effort to
drive down the price.
That is what we saw on April 7-8 as volume increased past 800k on both days
in the shorts' effort to protect what was becoming a very, very difficult
position to hold. In fact, by this time, they were probably already
approaching a very dangerously large position that threatened a very large
loss if they started covering. Here, their choice was to risk a huge loss
or try to sell through the buying pressure and hope it died down. Obviously
they chose to continue shorting (shorts tend to be a stubborn lot).
Well, guess what everyone? BUYING PRESSURE NEVER STOPPED!!!!! And between
April 9 and April 21, it kept coming in and ticking the price up. Damned
shorts had to keep selling shares and extend out their short position.
Well. . . by April 22, they had had enough of this and were in a very, very,
very seriously threatening position. More MMs were brought in. More funky
trades began occurring. I know some people might disagree with me on this
one, but I think up through this Wednesday (May 6), I believe THE SHORTS
WERE STILL TRYING TO SELL SHORT THROUGH THIS BUYING PRESSURE AND THAT IS
WHY VOLUME WAS SO HIGH FROM APRIL 21-MAY 6. But even if it was just phantom
volume, clearly the increased volume during this time period was yet
another effort to drive down the price again (after all, the first two had
worked pretty quickly for the short MMs). But ha, ha, ha -- buying pressure
just didn't go away. In fact, word was spreading much too quickly about
this great little pick. And also, nobody was SELLING their stock (bless all
of your souls :), so the shorts were taking it on both ends in an ugly way.
Then came the sledgehammer on May 7. Coastal Securities stepped up strongly
on the bid. Many of us sat scratching our heads on May 7 as the first 3
hours hours of trading showed almost an eerie deafening silence. All of
these MMs were scratching their heads too wondering who this new player was
and how many shares he wanted. Well guess what? Coastal apparently wasn't
frickin around. The past 2 days of trading showed the MMs waiting all day
for Coastal to step back. Coastal didn't. MMs began bailing the last
half-hour each day. My guess is the small outfits are bailing first as this
game is getting too high stakes for them. (anybody notice that 50k block go
off late yesterday :) Now just wait until the big boy short position begins
to crumble. You ain't seen nothing yet.
To summarize, volume increased dramatically over 3 periods. The first two
were successful knockdowns in the share price. By the third effort, TGSK
simply had picked up too much strength and the shorts could not keep it
down though they tried for 10 trading days. Then Coastal has stepped up for
the past 2 days. When you combine what we have uncovered about the MMs and
really dissect the trading, much comes to the surface.
I say all of this for two reasons. First, I want everybody to understand
how repulsive this kind of manipulation is and why I certainly have no
intention of giving in to this early and letting them cover at only a
"moderate loss". Believe me, on this volume over the past 25 trading days,
"at least 2 million" is a good start for estimating the short position.
Second, I know the MMs read these threads to try to get a pulse on the
internet crew. I want them to know that we have decoded their message. We
have cracked your code MMs. Go and find yourselves another prey. I hope you
get squeezed so hard that you don't have the finances to do this to ANY
other stock and screw ANY other small investors. The gig is up. Suck up
your loss and get out of town.
All that having been said, I greatly appreciate everyone's hard work in
digging up info. The above scenario I'm sure is not 100% accurate. But I do
believe it probably is close with some great truth to it. On this float, on
these fundamentals, on the amount of buying we know HAS come in, on the MM
activity we have uncovered, the pieces all seem to fit. And again, above
and beyond ANY of this short squeeze talk is a company that has
extraordinary promise simply on its own merits and not just because of the
MM activity or impending squeeze.
KEEP THE FAITH TSHARK HOLDERS!!!! OUR REWARDS ARE ALREADY COMING!!!
Sincerely, Flightlessbird #2
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