{"id":6918,"date":"2013-08-13T15:21:56","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T20:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6918"},"modified":"2013-08-13T15:21:56","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T20:21:56","slug":"is-carl-icahn-a-modern-day-pump-and-dump-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=6918","title":{"rendered":"Is Carl Icahn A Modern Day Pump and Dump Artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carl Icahn announced today on Twitter than he had taken a large position in AAPL and that he had just gotten off the phone with AAPL CEO Tim Cook. On the news, AAPL shot up (see intraday chart below).
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\nIcahn is a billionaire. I’m going to assume he’s got lots of smart lawyers around him telling him what he can and can’t say, so what he did today probably isn’t illegal. But it’s still very shady. I don’t see it as being any different than a penny stock pump-n-dump operation. Give me one reason why he feels compelled to announce his position to the world. One reason. One set of conditions that would necessitate this. There isn’t one. If he’s so good at what he does, why doesn’t he quietly go about his business? <\/span>
\nBill Ackman shorted Herbalife and not only announced it, he’s been on a nonstop campaign to convince everyone he’s right. This included a three hour presentation at a conference where he painstakingly went through dozens of slides in an attempt to prove his point.<\/span>
\nDan Loeb went public with his position in YHOO. After the stock went up a bunch (albeit several months later), he dumped the position. He wasn’t a sharehold activist. He wasn’t looking out for shareholder rights or anything like that. He cared about one thing and one thing only – making a quick buck, which he did.<\/span>
\nI don’t see how what these fund managers do is any different than a penny stock pump-n-dump operation. Wall St. has become a joke. Many traders went to jail for running pump-n-dump operations back in the day, but the practice continues. Except in steady of buying 20K shares of a penny stock and then announcing it in a chat room, billionaire fund managers do the same thing with more money using the financial media. <\/span>
\nIt reminds me of when Maria would report from the floor of the NYSE (yes I’m dating myself, but that’s the last time I turned on CNBC). Cramer, would ran a hedge fund at the time, would slip her some BS info about a stock. The stock would pop (or drop), and Cramer’s fund would take a quick profit. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat. <\/span>
\nAnd by the way, Warren Buffett does this too. He’s not shy about telling the world about a stock he just bought. <\/span>
\nDoes this affect me? Not one iota. But it still bothers me that this kind of stuff goes on. <\/span>
\nOh well. I’m just gonna put my head down and keep trading. <\/span>
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