Stock promotion out of control: "Axis of Evil" professionally-promoted mega-plays XKEM(June), FHAL(July) and SLJB(August), now all 3 on the short side, plus the "Dr. Evil" stockster return with his Hedgie buddies in July, warped the speculative playing field and misallocated speculative capital during these thin summer trading months, and, unfortunately, to the main benefit of the mm's, insiders, stock promoters, and hedges... not traders.
But the good news is most of the mess is cleaned up headed into the fall, with the exception of the ongoing shortie mop-up operations at FHAL and SLJB..