RealDeal-unless Tim has changed his policy, he doesn't take positions in stocks that he writes about. To do so would be perfectly legal, however, as long as all the information he dug up was available to the general public if they chose to find it. Market participants are information seekers; if you are better at finding out and interpreting information, you have an advantage over the uninformed investor-known on the street as "dumb money".
Elgindy, for example, was not convicted for illegal shorting. He was convicted for trading on non-public information he obtained from corrupt FBI agents. In fact, every stock he identified as a scam was a scam, and most of the information he obtained-VLPI comes to mind-was available to anybody with a computer and a function sense of logic.
Leave the cat alone! For what has the cat done to you that you should so afflict it with tape?