Sure, The higher ups know this is false, heck they may have use the oppertunity to buy back some stock at a good price. Getting the leaker now then when there is delay causing a longer stock drop.
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iPhone and Leopard Delayed?
- Thread starter nickster9224
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Sure, The higher ups know this is false, heck they may have use the oppertunity to buy back some stock at a good price. Getting the leaker now then when there is delay causing a longer stock drop.
Well, I think the FCC's green light to Apple should be a little bit of reassurance to all those out there who are itching to fork over some dough. How could Apple delay something, if the pending FCC approval is no longer pending. Seems pretty complete to me.
Given the trouble such a release can cause (such as in this case), I doubt they'd do that, especially since they'd have to do it once per suspect.
I'm cautious to post this, as there has been no other verification, but Engadget claims that both the iPhone and Leopard have been delayed. According to the gadget site:Engadget only states "we have it on authority" and no other source is given.
In the past, Engadget has been very liberal about linking almost any Apple rumor found on the internet, but they rarely post Apple rumors based on their own sources. That being said, the last time they did (October 2006), they were wrong. However, due to Engadget's popularity and confidence in this report, this has been posted on Page 1 rather than Page 2.
What, MR Admn's are admitting to 'popularity' contest biases in their rumor reporting then?
Why hasn't this bogus & misleading rumor been moved to page 2 then, now that it has been denounced by Apple PR (yeah, I know, they've -PR- denied stuff before, but still...p.2 is now where it should be moved)?
So please MR, stop being so biased and from now on put all Digitimes rumors on p.1, their recent track record is as good as anyone else! (no saying much)--- when will they be given their fair share of 15min of silly rumor fame
Yes, for good reason. If the Mac web is abuzz from a particular story, it's of more interest to our members and site visitors.
We say this in our FAQ, explaining that Page 1 can include stories that are "of wide interest to the Mac community" even if they are not confirmed or are less credible.
Personally, I find this story of even more interest now that it's been discredited. Who sent the email? For what purpose? Should we expect it to happen again?
What really happened
Sorry, if you really believe this, then you have no idea the kind of rules that regulate the behavior of publicly traded companies. Knowingly putting out false information that would almost certainly affect billions of dollars in market cap is not only stupid, but highly illegal. As Apple executives, they would essentially be maninpulating the market based on lies, and the SEC views such actions as crimminal offenses. There is no way in hell that the email came from Apple with an official stamp of approval.
Now this is just speculation, but it is far more likely the fake news was the result of hedge fund and option traders, who do quite routinely circulate fake news to manipulate markets (refer to Cramer's admission as a former hedge fund manager how commons such practices were).
It is probably no coincidence that option calls for May are expiring on Friday. Apple has been a victim of sustained bear raiding over the past year by option traders (again, see Cramer's take for insight into the bear raiding) and just 3 weeks ago, it would have been highly doubtful that APPL would be trading around $110 per share.
What happened was that a lot of people shorted AAPL and bought a lot of puts - essentially, they were gambling that AAPL would be trading below a certain price by Friday, May 18th. But what happened in the last 2 weeks is that the stock broke through the ceiling, setting all-time high 9 consecutive trading days. That meant that a lot of people who bought those put options where suddenly deep under water.
So say you bought a single May put option contract at a $90 strike price. When you buy a put option, you pay for the right to sell 100 shares of AAPL at $90. You have to exercise that option by May 18 (3rd Friday of the month) or it expires and becomes worthless. If AAPL fell to $85 by that date, then you could exercise the option and buy 100 shares at $85 and sell it immediately at the guaranteed price of $90 (the strike price).
But what happened was that AAPL zoomed up to $110. Suddenly, a lot of people who had expected AAPL to drop to $90 were facing the prospect of having to sell AAPL at $90 a share and cover their puts by buying shares on the open market at $110 a share - a instant loss of $20 a share.
Or you watch as your $90 put options expire on May 18 because no one is stupid enough to want to sell AAPL at $90 and buy them for $110/share. You lose 100% of the money you spent buying those $90 put options that looked quite reasonable 3 weeks ago.
So what is a hedge fund operator to do? You put out a fake email designed to have the maximum negative but believable PR, i.e. the iPhone and Leopard being delayed. That causes a market panic, the stock drops, and the hedge fund traders can at least unload their put options and take a far smaller loss. If the drop is steep enough, you could even turn around a quick profit on the drop.
Don't believe me? Just check out the May 2007 options chart at finance.yahoo.com
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=AAPL
Look at how many open contract there are for put options at $90, $95, and $100. We are talking about tens of millions of shares here that people were gambling that AAPL would drop to $90, $95 or $100 by tomorrow. Look at the bid prices for those put option.
N/A - completely worthless.
Now look at the asking price - not zero but close to it, i.e. people are still trying to sell their worthless put options by tomorrow. A lof of people who were counting on AAPL to lose steam are going to be losing many millions of dollars tomorrow.....
Sorry if this explanation is long and complicated, but this scenario is far more plausible than a ridiculous attempt to root out a leaker. Apple gains nearly nothing rooting out a single leaker while risking billions of dollars of loss in market cap and exposing the entire board and executive hierarchy to criminal wrongdoing. It just doesn't fly no matter how much you hate Steve for his secretiveness, but the idea that this was a vindictive insider plot by Apple is 100% ridiculous.
Sorry, if you really believe this, then you have no idea the kind of rules that regulate the behavior of publicly traded companies. Knowingly putting out false information that would almost certainly affect billions of dollars in market cap is not only stupid, but highly illegal. As Apple executives, they would essentially be maninpulating the market based on lies, and the SEC views such actions as crimminal offenses. There is no way in hell that the email came from Apple with an official stamp of approval.
Now this is just speculation, but it is far more likely the fake news was the result of hedge fund and option traders, who do quite routinely circulate fake news to manipulate markets (refer to Cramer's admission as a former hedge fund manager how commons such practices were).
It is probably no coincidence that option calls for May are expiring on Friday. Apple has been a victim of sustained bear raiding over the past year by option traders (again, see Cramer's take for insight into the bear raiding) and just 3 weeks ago, it would have been highly doubtful that APPL would be trading around $110 per share.
What happened was that a lot of people shorted AAPL and bought a lot of puts - essentially, they were gambling that AAPL would be trading below a certain price by Friday, May 18th. But what happened in the last 2 weeks is that the stock broke through the ceiling, setting all-time high 9 consecutive trading days. That meant that a lot of people who bought those put options where suddenly deep under water.
So say you bought a single May put option contract at a $90 strike price. When you buy a put option, you pay for the right to sell 100 shares of AAPL at $90. You have to exercise that option by May 18 (3rd Friday of the month) or it expires and becomes worthless. If AAPL fell to $85 by that date, then you could exercise the option and buy 100 shares at $85 and sell it immediately at the guaranteed price of $90 (the strike price).
But what happened was that AAPL zoomed up to $110. Suddenly, a lot of people who had expected AAPL to drop to $90 were facing the prospect of having to sell AAPL at $90 a share and cover their puts by buying shares on the open market at $110 a share - a instant loss of $20 a share.
Or you watch as your $90 put options expire on May 18 because no one is stupid enough to want to sell AAPL at $90 and buy them for $110/share. You lose 100% of the money you spent buying those $90 put options that looked quite reasonable 3 weeks ago.
So what is a hedge fund operator to do? You put out a fake email designed to have the maximum negative but believable PR, i.e. the iPhone and Leopard being delayed. That causes a market panic, the stock drops, and the hedge fund traders can at least unload their put options and take a far smaller loss. If the drop is steep enough, you could even turn around a quick profit on the drop.
Don't believe me? Just check out the May 2007 options chart at finance.yahoo.com
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=AAPL
Look at how many open contract there are for put options at $90, $95, and $100. We are talking about tens of millions of shares here that people were gambling that AAPL would drop to $90, $95 or $100 by tomorrow. Look at the bid prices for those put option.
N/A - completely worthless.
Now look at the asking price - not zero but close to it, i.e. people are still trying to sell their worthless put options by tomorrow. A lof of people who were counting on AAPL to lose steam are going to be losing many millions of dollars tomorrow.....
Sorry if this explanation is long and complicated, but this scenario is far more plausible than a ridiculous attempt to root out a leaker. Apple gains nearly nothing rooting out a single leaker while risking billions of dollars of loss in market cap and exposing the entire board and executive hierarchy to criminal wrongdoing. It just doesn't fly no matter how much you hate Steve for his secretiveness, but the idea that this was a vindictive insider plot by Apple is 100% ridiculous.
This BetaNews article says the fake email didn't start within Apple.
The fake memo was simply crafted to look like it came from Apple and contained the same wording that typically accompanies legitimate internal communication from the company's Bullet News system. The e-mail was then sent to a handful of employees, one of whom passed it to Engadget.