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Carson's partner Sean Regan is another SC guy FWIW.
Even if Rick has no relationship to Carson, nobody is more familiar with his tactics. I'm sure his ears perk up when Muddy Waters picks a new target.
I'll add to that, saying not only were the shorts correct that CCME was going to tumble, they called it down to the DAY! CCME has been publicly traded for how long? Years? Yet shorts went in deeper and deeper all leading up to the 10-K. They took it to the brink of the REG SHO list, THEN they piled on with ridiculous amounts of March puts, valuations were going nuts! Many were even buying March 5's with only days left 'til execution! A simple Deloitte signature would blow them all out of the water and trigger the biggest short squeeze you're ever likely to see.
Crazy, right? Reckless right? They must be insane! ...I guess not.
They knew.
Guessed??? Not all of them. No way. Some knew for a fact.
I doubt there's much love lost between the two, but it must be a small community of American financial researcher over there. Plus, I believe they went to USC at the same time. Rick might have figured, hell if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
I hold no ill will towards RP, in fact I'll probably follow his stuff a lot more closely now. I'm just picturing what I'd do in the same situation. Difference is I'd probably bought a LOT more puts than he did!
Agree 100%! Most of them knew and the rest strongly suspected.
Guessed??? Not all of them. No way. Some knew for a fact.
My thoughts on Rick (from my vivid imagination):
We know he's friends or at least strong acquaintances with Carson Block. Let's at least say they're very familiar with each other. After all they did go head to head on ONP with Rick getting the short end of the confrontation.
I'm guessing at some point Rick heard through sources that Carson and his buddies knew that the audit was going poorly at CCME. Now Rick's a reporter but he can't just flat out disclose this crucial information or he'll be crucified by both the longs and the shorts (the shorts are especially mean). So he takes the middle route and issues a vague watered down warning to longs (who summarily dismiss it) and ends up buying puts in CCME. His conscious is clear, his reputation gets a boost and, heck, might as well make a few extra bucks betting on a sure thing, right?
I can understand the warning if he had a bad feeling, but the puts tell me he heard something more substantial than he let on at the time.
Rick seems like a smart guy with his heart in the right place, but I don't think he was Nostradamus or a hero here by any stretch. That being said, I wish I'd listened to him this time.
As usual, I might be completely off base here.
I have to disagree Amy, 7.8 MILLION shorts guessed correctly on the DTT resignation. And when I say "guessed" I feel I'm not giving them the credit they deserve.
I don't think it matters much to the outcome of the CCME story. She embarrassed her employer enough at this point to justify her firing.
Poor Ping Luo??
She puts out a strong buy with a $26 price target mere weeks before the company implodes. Sorry, but getting canned was well deserved.
Global Hunter looks completely incompetent because of her.
I was wondering why she didn't respond to my email a couple days ago.
- Understatement Alert - This is not turning out anything like I'd pictured it.
Reminds me of the sign I saw on the side of the road yesterday:
"House for sale
Valued at $145,000
Sale price $75,000"
I'm thinking, if it's really worth $145K, why would you be selling it for $75K? I didn't exactly see anyone scrambling to write down the phone number either.
Since there's obviously a problem, I want to know why nobody has the balls to stick around and fix it? Do your jobs! All these people there to protect shareholder's interest (Jacky, Dorothy, DTT auditors, Ping, etc.) just fold up like a cheap card table and slink off into the darkness when trouble starts.
None of them deserve careers in this industry again.
CKGT - You know what, that's a good bet, I've been one hell of a contra-indicator lately. Time to load up!! :)
I've heard that so many times before on this stock and so many others that I take your statement as a positive.
I'm pretty sure that's what Davey Crocket said at the Alamo.
CEO's reply:
-------------------------------------
The company does not have a problem. We will fight to the end. Thank you for your continuous support.
LOL! (not a ticker symbol)
Sokka on Cactus Juice, "Its Very Thirst Quenching":
I've lost a few bucks on CKGT and not really looking to get back in anytime soon. I just hope there's a greater investment thesis involved here than, "those crazy Chinese will smoke anything." Even Bradford is laughing at their product in his video.
To me, of all the CGS stocks, CKGT always seemed the silliest idea for a business, much less a publicly traded company. It surely doesn't scream "DOUBLE!".
Sorry, but I'm starting to question everything right now.
CKGT - This may just be my CCME cynicism kicking in but has anyone ever actually seen a cactus cigarette? Has anyone here ever seen or heard of anyone drinking cactus juice? (outside of "Man vs Wild" of course) Would you buy cactus juice or cactus beer?
Right now- CKGT looks about as good a buy as I've seen since March 2009 when I was buying the hell out of it in the .20-.30s.
"CKGT will double from current pps in 6 months or less."
Consider the fact that anyone who bought YONG at any time since last August and held until today is showing a loss.
I'm really starting to wonder, if these China growth stocks are really that valuable, why don't they grow?
I'm thinking YONG as well. I already saw one lame "red flags" hit piece recently, that's usually a sign.
Next MW Hit Piece?
A trash talking CEO is never a good sign.
CEO Letter "I am certain that their actions will ultimately catch up with them."
I took the liberty of sending an alternate letter to the company, it reads:
"Dear CCME Management and Board members,
F--K YOU!!
Sincerely,
Your shareholders"
I don't know if it requires a translation or not.
I hope you're right Amy, but I think we're all a little tired of giving them the benefit of the doubt right now.
Why bother? It'll be a lot of work and you'll get a penny back on the dollar (if you're lucky) in two years when it's all over.
Might as well get a minimum wage job, it's much more cost effective.
If the CEO can't run the company what makes you think we can do any better?
Check that. The CEO did run the company... into the ground!
Any thoughts on the next CGS name to fall? I think YONG and TSTC look ripe.
CCME - The entire CGS sector just became a plaything for the shorts. Watch out!
Whatever happened to a thousand things? Investors got screwed by the shorts, screwed by the company, screwed by management, screwed by the board, screwed by Jacky, screwed by Dorothy, screwed by Deloitte, screwed by the institutions, screwed by Global Hunter, and screwed by ourselves and our own greed and stupidity.
China is dead to me.
Nice to see Dorothy and Jacky looking out for the shareholder's best interests, huh.
Like rats leaving a sinking ship.
So under this scenario the shorts actively went out and created the exact event they all warned us about. That's seriously messed up!
That was obviously what they were trying to do, but I'm amazed that it actually might have worked. Deloitte comes off as completely spineless, who would ever hire them again?
Very nice! I'll toss out another possibility that's been raised here.
6) The shorts knew if the harassed DTT and created enough controversy they could get them to wash their hands of CCME and resign.
One thing I guarantee is that they didn't go 8 million shares short unless the had an exit plan.
Allow me to summarize Tracy's blog for you guys...
"Since a lot of people have said a lot of bad things about CCME, I must conclude that at least some of them must be true. I come to this conclusion despite the fact I have no actual evidence and am too lazy to read the counter arguments.
I have no position in CCME and really don't know anything about the company or the situation but I felt my opinion was so important that I just had to share.
Thank you."
The halt is a great thing right now! It's the only thing keeping the share price from cratering. Plus it's torturing the shorts.
Think about it, the shorts are HATING this! They are dying to cash in on all the panic and chaos they created. They screamed "FIRE!" but the theater doors are locked. Now they're hoping they'll open before we all realize the fire is really just a candle burning in the corner.
The last thing the shorts want is time for the company to explain itself. As much as it sucks having your capital tied up, a long NEP style halt is the one thing that might just save our butts (or at least a piece of them).
Starr, Nasdaq, CCME? Anyone - can we get the stock trading today or tomorrow?
The FUD and the hit pieces did three things.
1. Knocked the price down letting the shorts gain a reprieve from REG SHO (not that they were really that concerned in the first place).
2. Created an aura of fraud and changed the conversation.
3. Made the longs get emotional about their investment so we'd dig in and fight to the end. "We're right dammit!" "Short squeeze coming!"
And, in fact, we likely were right about the company but they made sure they were right about the stock price.
Big money won and we will probably never know how. Bit I don't think it was the fud of the hit pieces.
There is no fraud (at least nothing proven as of yet). There are lots of ACCUSATIONS of fraud, most of which have been blown out of the water by the amazing efforts of WCT Bills and others, but that doesn't really matter. The accusations are out there so the headlines read "Deloitte Resigns From CCME Under Accusations of Fraud". I don't know about you, but that's enough to make me want to run for cover. Shorts... WINNING!
If you think about it, for the shorts the more outrageous the accusations the better! One says it's a phantom company, the next says they only have 500 buses, price target of $5, price target of $3, it's all fun and games to them. Now the accusations are out there and people are talking.
If the shorts presented a logical case we'd all just bail. There wouldn't be anyone left to buy the shares they're selling or sell the puts they're buying. Meanwhile they're laughing their asses off at how smart we all think we are.
Basically if there's actual fraud or not doesn't matter, the result is the same. All they needed was a stumble. Somebody knew at some point that DTT wouldn't be able to sign off on the audit (for any of a hundred reasons) and that was enough information for the shorts to destroy the company, run off with all our money and leave us pointing our fingers at management.
I'm not saying management is innocent, they screwed up royally and handed the shorts all the ammunition they needed to take them down. Didn't really take much.
I may be way off base with all this, but you gotta admit, it makes sense.
Then all these shorts coordinate these attacks knowing DTT would uncover the fraud.
Again,for me, there was nothing the shorts presented that knocked our socks off especially after people started to uncover all the errors the shorts were making.
If you think about it, all it really takes is one hedge fund manager to know (pay for) a secret and a few loyal followers who trust that he knows something. They don't have to know the details, in fact it's better if they don't. Then you just put the wheels in motion.
You don't even have to get everyone on board, I'd imagine if a financial columnist got wind of something from a reliable source they might pile on just to increase their reputation. I would, if I was sure I would ultimately be proven right.
I don't for a second think CCME is a total fraud, but it probably won't matter much in the end.
Thanks Joe, I wish I had this little epiphany a month ago.
...And how do I get on their mailing list to participate in the next one! Lol!
The shorts obviously knew something ahead of time. They must have been tipped off that DTT was going to have an issue with the 10-K.
You don't go short half the float, then go naked, 5 million, 6 million, 7 million, 8 million shares. Then continue buying huge amounts of March puts just days before earnings, unless you KNOW something, absolutely know something.
All the outrageous hit pieces that came out were really designed to spread enough FUD that the shorts could cry "FRAUD!" at any little hiccup CCME might encounter. They raised the bar for the company to ridiculous heights. Turns out that hiccup was more along the lines of them puking on themselves, but still.
It doesn't matter how wrong MW or Citron actually were, they knew they could claim victory in the end and the shareholders would forget about them and turn all their anger on the company.
My question (which will likely never be answered) is who tipped them off?
Because, depending on the severity of the accounting issues, they may still have options left to soften the blow to their investors. If they're sitting in their offices laughing at us and smoking cigars, then we're all screwed.
Either way we're all trapped here on this island together for the foreseeable future so we we have no choice but to wait and see what develops.
...But like I said, not optimistic.
Why you are still talking about and thinking of protecting shareholders?
Haven't you seen enough? what else you need?
It depends on who's side management is on. Do they want to protect shareholders or their own butts?
Jury is still out, but I'm not optimistic at the moment.
Yeaaah us! Woo hoo!! Congrats to all involved.
530,723 final number........new record
NEW RULE: Never invest in a stock with with a Facebook fan page for its shareholders.