well, yes and no. yes, there are orgainized short cartels. they usually target new start up companies that have big potential and then they will time their sell orders, typically with "borrowed" shares, to coincide with good press releases that would otherwise drive the pps upward. this activity drives the pps downward as they will flood with marker maker with sell order, driving the ask price way down.

the hedge funds that do this, i.e short cartels (i like that word) are placing short orders the entire time as they can manipulate the stock price downward and profit on their short position. in addition, the hedge funds do have paid bashers to create all sorts of lies about the company to further erode investor confidence.

many young companies have been ruined by this activity. the best defense is to acknowledge that it exists and do your best to ignore it and hang on to your shares. the end game for these hedge fund managers is to drive the company bankrupt. in that scenario, they never have to pay back their short position (i.e. the shares that they purchased from the broker that they need to pay back) and their activity is pure profit. there is lots of money to be made doing this. kramer even admitted to his role in doing this many years ago.

i'm not saying this is occurring here with RMHB, but it sure looks like it. its hard to prove.

google up naked short selling.
an interesting article here that is somewhat recent. http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/201...rt-selling