To: Ausdauer who wrote (5382 ) 4/14/1999 7:56:00 AM From: Art Bechhoefer Respond to
Aus, those are very perceptive comments on reasons other than short selling. My own experience with QUALCOMM, which I originally bought in 1992, reflects my convictions about the actions of short sellers. Until just recently, QUALCOMM was no favorite of institutional investors but was a stock that could be fairly easily manipulated by short term traders. Whenever an analyst made some fairly pessimistic comments about QUALCOMM's patents, CDMA system, etc., short interest would rise. Then, generally just a few days prior to release of quarterly earnings, there seemed to be substantial buying, possibly to cover the shorts. Once the favorable earnings report came out, the stock didn't go up as one might expect, but leveled off or even went down, indicating that the shares had probably been bought in anticipation of a good report and then sold immediately thereafter.
