Good questions and I'll answer them:
(1). When it comes to the law, confessions can be very strong especially in civil courts where on a preponderance of evidence must be attained. In both criminal and civil courts, recanting confessions is often ineffective and puts the burden of proof on that of the confessor. Furthermore I have additional evidence such a purported names that probably don't exist that were part of the original, illegally distributed false rumor. Trying to withdraw a confession would be tough.
(2). When it comes to securiites law involving starting false rumors, if it started as dissemination to "just" one person or it involved 7 billion people at once it is irrelevant. The act is illegal as I showed by example and the source of knowingly false rumors is responsible for the domino effect. Most rumors do indeed start with just a handful informed or even just one person. So my "who knows how many third parties" could also be stated as "who cares how many third parties." This is probably also why "a course familiar with the matter" as you see in financial news articles are rarely manipulative lies because they'd face serious civil and criminal consequences for even just disemminating to one person (in this example it may be CNBC).
(3). The 31% drop I speak of was from when the rumor began. The shelf announcement was significantly before that. My chart only represents the fall from when I heard the rumor to its lowest point after the rumor.
(4). No, I don't feel used. I actually find this stuff sadistically enjoyable though I don't condone securiites violations I must admit when dumb people do dumb things it makes me extremely entertained, especially to those who actually know the real me. *smile* I also enjoy the distraction and break from real work.
By the way, my sources I've been quoting for many months are not this one. This one came off as an idiot from the beginning so I never trusted him/her nor quoted him/her except the one time and said then it sounded like bullshit. My real sources have been spot on. And you know I have been spot on as well when it comes to legal analysis.
