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Biotech / Medical : VVUS: VIVUS INC. (NASDAQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: AlienTech who wrote (17955)	1/20/1999 12:38:00 AM
From: VLAD	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23519

Alien, Damn right it stinks. That is because compared to "other" similar biotechs such as CEPH, LIPO, ICOS, ZONA etc.... Vivus' stock price makes absolutely no sense at all. My feeling is that it is due to MANIPULATION and NO I'm not just saying that as sour grapes. If you have a better explanation then let us know it. You can't justify a price of $3.00 on this stock. Ain't no way.

To: AlienTech who wrote (17955)	1/20/1999 12:40:00 AM
From: VLAD	Respond to of 23519

And don't forget.... It's easier and takes less money to keep the price down when the price is this low but if sentiment/momentum suddenly changes the manipulators just may lose control of their plan of slow systematic covering.

To: AlienTech who wrote (17955)	1/20/1999 3:23:00 PM
From: VLAD	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23519

Alien, Do you really believe some of the stuff you are saying? Tell us all how Wilson can sell a significant number of shares without filing with the SEC. I think you are also forgeting that he has to file his holdings on a regular bases. If he files and all of a sudden he owns fewer shares with no prior 144 filings he is screwed. THERE IS NO WAY AROUND THIS!!!! You probably don't understand how stock manipulation works. Let me explain. Technically you can't short your own stock. By definition shorting is borrowing stock that you don't own. So how does one short his own stock? It is very simple. Assume you have 1,000,000 shares long Vivus. By having an "agreement"(of coarse illegal) with another brokerage you open a second account with a seperate house. In essence the 2 houses conspire to only allow shorting of long positions by the same player whose shares were borrowed ie only allowed to short your own shares. These shares are made illegaly exclusively available only to the actual holder of the long position. When someone else calls to borrow shares for shorting these particular 1,000,000 shares are never available thus protecting the players from getting squeezed. They can at anytime close their hedged position by executing a few large trades inside the market via these 2 brokers or they can even close out the position outside the market via SelecNet. I believe that this type of manipulation has kept Vivus share price from showing any significant recovery over the past 4 to 5 months. Those hedged with an agenda to hold the price down simply short or sell the stock when it shows strength and buy/cover when it falls back below a certain level (in Vivus' case that would be 2 1/2 to 2 15/16). I believe that the plan is to hold the price down as long as possible to eliminate as many weak hands as possible. It is hard for many of the small players not to sell out when they are forced to watch insane gains in other issues such as the internet stocks. IMO the only winners in Vivus will be the patient. The type of manipulation I described only works if there is not strong demand for buying a stock. Good news can change all of this real fast. Maybe next Thursday will be the pivitol point in Vivus' trading pattern.