What gives market predators an edge up on most of us is that they know the market and human nature well enough to take advantage of the suckers and those who should know better. Despite what Gordon Gecko might tell us, greed isn't so good for the small investor. Greed will get the better of us.
The core of Sandra Mohr's documentary thesis about how unsuspecting investors can be suckered into a manipulation scheme is the case of Sirius XM Radio (symbol, SIRI), a company that formed as a merger of two satellite radio stations, Sirius--the one that built up a clientele from the avid followers of Howard Stern--and XM Satellite which, when it was formed, was the better funded of the two. Once it was clear that the market for the two companies' services was limited, they merged, arousing vast amounts of media and market attention and company hype. It was an industry of the future as some saw it, and a prime target for manipulation because of its highly speculative 'promise' factor.
Employing a technique known as 'pump and dump,' which begins with the issuance of false information, rumor and glowing projections by 'experts,' the operators of the scam 'pump' up the price. To further its advance, they buy into it. When the maximum stretch point is reached, they dump their holdings of the stock at a handsome profit, which immediately begins the momentum for a downslide. They then go 'short' in order to profit on the way down. A load of misinformation follows, now with an entirely negative aspect, which is absorbed by the financial press and the major media that are quick to make stories out of the bursting of balloons filled with myth and pie-in-the-sky scenarios.
Imagine how much these con artists made when the stock (in 2009!) went from $9 per share to five cents (yes, $.05) per share.
In the aftermath, some of the victims call for changes in trading mechanisms they never knew existed (or outside their frame of reference). Along with Martine Rothblatt (Howard Stern on Demand), they now heap blame for being played on short selling, venting over a well established market mechanism. The real lesson here, though, is that most amateur traders (to whom investing isn't their day job) don't pay all that much attention to their investments until it's too late to avoid or limit reversals of their market positions. In other words, fellow amateurs, pay attention to your money!
Rage is understandable, but in focusing on short selling as the cause of losing their shirts, the documentary's subjects fail to admit that they didn't have the market trading savvy to give them guidance in market action. One woman talks of how amazing it was, one day, when her stock rose nine points! Instead of taking a spiffy short-term profit, she was mentally locked into that thirty dollar 'target.' But, traders, attention! There's a saying: 'No one ever lost money by taking a profit.' Take that to the bank.
Hanging on to a myth when actual profits are realizable is what made these people vulnerable. With all the sorrow expressed, the filmmakers build a case that short selling implies Wall Street corruption and inept regulation, but this is false and not a little misleading. It's rather like blaming the horses for eating the cow feed because someone didn't tell them it was for the bovines.
Despite the effort of traveling to six different states for the telling of the stories, it's insufficient on dramatic grounds. Where is the footage on the pursuit of the manipulators? Where are the court hearings or the prison interviews? Where are the wanted posters? Director/co-writer Mohr, with all good intentions, does a service by attempting to forewarn the public that the stock market is risky business, but the excitement of tracking down the perpetrators of this particular con game is outside her framework of attention. The aftermath reactions of naive and ill-prepared investors shouldn't have the effect of demanding more government regulation and oversight but rather to warn the uninitiate to develop a sound method of judging the risks and probabilities of an investment other than by 'the seat of your pants.' That approach is what Las Vegas is all about.
On the other hand, if the faces of those who are crying the blues after their money went down the drain doesn't arouse a sense of caution in your approach to the market, perhaps I can interest you in a really promising gold mining stock? Hit me.
