https://smithonstocks.com/illegal-naked-short-sell
Post# of 11802
Investment Consequences of Naked Shorting
Only a motivated enforcement agency with subpoena power and an accompanying powerful enforcement infrastructure can prove that naked shorting is at the heart of an extensive stock manipulation scheme. However, I believe that the observational evidence is overwhelming that naked shorting practices are widely used to manipulate the stock prices of emerging biotechnology companies as well as many other small and large companies. Unfortunately, naked shorting is an investment variable that investors must understand if they are going to make investments in the emerging biotechnology space in particular and the equity markets in general.
Investors may decide that they just won’t invest in companies that are most subject to naked shorting, but this would eliminate many small emerging growth stocks with exciting potential. For those like me who are attracted by potentially breakthrough technologies, you will inevitably get caught up in a manipulation that leads to a suddenly plunging stock price of a company in which you are invested. Invariably the scheme starts with and is perpetuated by a flurry of blogs, tweets and message board comments which proclaim that the technology is worthless; management is a band of liars and thieves; and people with a positive view on the Company are being paid by the Company. Then come the lawsuits against the Company and management by the usual group of class action law firms. Each year this scenario is played out hundreds of times.
This carefully scripted and long used manipulation scheme by short selling hedge funds is all meant to shake and then break investors’ confidence. The result is usually a painful, steady, day by day erosion of the stock price due to naked shorting practices. Stocks can be cut in half by naked shorting on the basis of little or no change in fundamentals. If you are going to invest in this area, you must decide when this occurs whether you believe strongly in the Company and can ride out the storm or want to cut and run. However, sometimes it happens so rapidly that the latter is not an option. On the positive side, these manipulations can often lead to some excellent investment opportunities if the fundamentals remain intact, investor confidence returns and the shorts are forced to cover.
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