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More Evidence of Sirius Stock Manipulation

by: Brandon Matthews September 19, 2008 | about stocks: SIRI    

Brandon Matthews

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All I can say is, WOW! What a day for the overall markets. I was in meetings for most of the day, and was quite surprised as I sat at my computer to see that Sirius XM (SIRI) was trading above 1.00! Wow!

I should have stayed in the final meeting longer, because my glee quickly diminished as I watched in horror the sharp decline that preceded the close. I witnessed first hand the blatant manipulation of the stock’s price, as it was again taken below the magical 1.00 mark. It is so clear to me that certain powers are intent to keep Sirius XM below a dollar in the hopes of creating distress in the marketplace and further fear mongering of their delisting rumors.

It began at 3:30 p.m. One half hour before the close. On a rather low volume day, the final half hour of trading brought with it the following trades (in shares): 804,944, 243,551, 201,454, 406,500, 263,912, 584,292, 184,101, 378,551, 182,535, 157,934, 316,240, 374,583, 384,576, 480,653, 440,201, 152,134, 1,208,522, 931,328 for a grand total of nearly 8 million shares.

It seems odd to me in light of the fact that not a single 100 share trade was executed. No 1000 share trades. No 10,000 share trades. No my friends, in the final half hour of trading, these orders were manipulated at the expense of the small trader. The market for Sirius XM retail investors closed Thursday at 3:30 p.m.. The after-hours session brought with it 3 more examples of stock manipulation. 3 blocks meant to bid the price down of 566,644 shares, 5,333,333 shares and 7,862,966 shares. Out the 14 million shares traded in the extended session at the time of my writing this article, nearly all of them came from these three trades.

Having successfully kept the stock under a dollar for the close, the retail investor was again permitted to buy and sell in the late session. So where is the SEC in all of this? I wish I knew. And perhaps we should all bring this to the attention of the SEC. While we’re at it, it seems Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of N.Y. is interested in bringing these market manipulators to justice. I will post the links in the SiriusBuzz forums for anyone who wishes to file a complaint as I believe there is strength in numbers, and that together we CAN make a difference.

Position: Long SIRI

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This article has 165 comments:

  •  
    Sep 19 05:35 AM
    I think if company can focus on their Product and Financing then rest should be taken care automatically.

    Hope this Christams hottest selling gift item - SIRI XM Radio
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 05:42 AM
    Sorry, typing mistake - Christmas.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 06:34 AM
    SEC chairman is putting his resume together, a little tough on him lately so don't expect any regulation for a spell.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 06:57 AM
    If this is going on wouldn't Mel and the gang explore it with the SEC and the Atty General?
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 08:23 AM
    Brandon...

    I saw the same thing yesterday and posted it on your Don't Believe Everything Your Hear article. The shares you refer to were pumped in via ECN--I was watching LVL 2 real-time and the Market Makers were over-ridden while this heavy flood came in with the resistance. My post from yesterday:

    Since this is my fist day back on RT LVL2 in a while, it was the first chance to watch the trading patterns. At about 3:15, some heavy ECN (Electronic Communication Network--which is where a lot of institutional trading comes from) action came in and over-rode the MM's, sending in the resistance at $1.02 and driving th price back down. Bid and Ask sizes were huge--75K, 100K, 300K. The MM's seemed to be locked out for a few minutes. The very last trade eeked out the .009 gain for today. A second before that it was down @ .92 or a loss for the day. As relmor says, this is all they have to do to make the stock do what they want any given day with all of those extra shares in the float. So, it's more than just shorting, it's manpulation at will. Interestingly, THE MOST ACTIVE MM today (Bid and Ask) was NSDQ (like stocks, MM's list as call letters)...I looked them up and that symbol is Nasdaq Execution Services. Hmmmm. They had many of the largest block sizes on both sides. I would love to be a fly on the wall to see the exact flow of all the extra shares. Overall though, SIRI held their own today nicely--considering the amount of people who wish they were @ .50 today instead of .949.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 08:38 AM
    Brandon...

    I saw the same thing and posted it yesterday on your Don't Believe Everything You Hear About Sirius article. The flood of shares seemed to come through the ECN--I was watching LVL 2 Real-time and the Market Makers appeared to be blocked as their Bid and Ask numbers were not registering on tbe board at all. As you say, when that flood came in, the resistance was set up and tanked the stock. Below was my post from yesterday:

    Since this is my first day back on RT LVL2 in a while, it was the first chance to watch the trading patterns. At about 3:15, some heavy ECN (Electronic Communication Network--which is where a lot of institutional trading comes from) action came in and over-rode the MM's, sending in the resistance at $1.02 and driving the price back down. Bid and Ask sizes were huge--75K, 100K, 300K. The MM's seemed to be locked out for a few minutes. The very last trade eeked out the .009 gain for today. A second before that it was down @ .92 or a loss for the day. As relmor says, this is all they have to do to make the stock do what they want any given day with all of those extra shares in the float. So, it's more than just shorting, it's manpulation at will. Interestingly, THE MOST ACTIVE MM today (Bid and Ask) was NSDQ (like stocks, MM's list as call letters)...I looked them up and that symbol is Nasdaq Execution Services. Hmmmm. They had many of the largest block sizes on both sides. I would love to be a fly on the wall to see the exact flow of all the extra shares. Overall though, SIRI held their own today nicely--considering the amount of people who wish they were @ .50 today instead of .949.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 09:00 AM
    Btw...there's been a lot o WHINING going on since yesterday among the big short players regarding the new short rule changes (and the ones that still maybe yet be coming. Yesterday the UK banned all short selling on their financials until mid-January)..."B... hooooo (tears flow)...how are we supposed to make any money now?" Did you hear the Fast Money team? Esp. Karen F? "What, you mean we can't short main street into oblivion at will any more? How are we supposed to make any money???? We feel bad for ya! NOT!
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 09:09 AM
    And away we go...

    SIRI Bid/Ask 9:05A 1.08/1.09 Vol 1,027,235

    I can't wait until SIRI rehydrates back into the 2's and all the disblievers eat their....
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 09:27 AM
    9:26

    Bid/Ask 1.10/1.11 !! Can you say cover those shorts!!!
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 09:35 AM
    Scot here. With investigation just around the corner for short sellers, it would seem that doomsday analysts would shut their mouths -- at least temporarily. But no, first thing this morning there's a nimrod kid at The Street mouthing off about the dire straits of SiriusXM and their debt- load. That idiot needs to think about it: That subject has been beat to death, it's been hashed and rehashed, and here he thinks he's doing somebody a favor in regurgitating old information -- somebody needs to hand that kid a Kleenex to wipe the snot off his face until he grows up....

    Scot' Slant
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 09:50 AM
    Yep Scot..

    Confirmed by today's action so far. Right at the open the Bid/Ask crashed from 1.08/1.09 to 1.00/1.01 and now their dicking around again under a buck. These guys refuse to give up. They will keep pounding down until ALL is lost for them. Like Brandon said, and as it's bearing out today--they DON'T WANT SIRI over a buck and they are fighting until the death to prevent it. I used to day trade and I can't recall this tough a battle at the dollar mark--usually if you gain that mark after being under, the shorts retreat back to their next point of resistance defense over a dollar--usually 1.15 - 1.20. I guess we'll just have to see who wins the battle of the buck today. The assumption is if they DO make it clearly over, it should take off from there higher into the next range...
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 09:57 AM
    Scotty................... ya know? ......................... I think I like the cut of yer jib...................... killer.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 09:58 AM
    BUY BUY BUY you,ll never be sorry. I can,t wait what the dummies downgrading this stock has to say when it goes thru the roof.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 10:00 AM
    sl62............. I'm with ya....................... thanks for the insight. killer.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 10:05 AM
    Hmm.......The lower GS went the higher SIRI went............
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 10:30 AM
    There it is again...

    Wow...10:17A...

    MM's locked out as they were heading up--their Bid/Ask 1.02/1.03...Bid/Ask on the board 1.00/1.01 while 100K. 200K, 300K blocks roll in....supressing the move.

    10:23A MM's finally lower their Bid/Ask to match board...

    10:26A starting to tank @ .97, .96

    Bid/Ask sizes back to normal matching MM's. Wow...total manipulation from the nether world....

    Invesitgation in order....
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 10:35 AM
    Check out this info from an internet article on "Naked Shorting" ... An example of a recent stock that’s been crushed to dust by this practice is Sirius-XM Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI). The company has huge potential… it’s a recently merged entity and now has 19 million paying subscribers. They have some debt problems, but the projects are that they’ll be profitable in 2009 and will add several million more subscribers while cutting costs. Seems like a natural success story of American capitalism. It’s a better product that regular radio. The merger created opportunity for them to become profitable and deliver an even better service. Naturally, the stock should be shooting up. Right? Errr… not exactly. Since the merger, Sirius has plunged by 60%.

    Sirius bothers me particularly because, as we noted on this blog, the FCC did the company a big disservice by over-regulating their merger and holding things up for over a year. Then we had the SEC looking the other way while vultures attack the new company and rip it to pieces.

    Sadly, Sirius is just one example of the hundreds of companies that were murdered in the last couple of years by these practices. Now that the SEC is starting to wake up, Sirius and other heavily shorted stock might be in line to rebound.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 10:41 AM
    No prob killer...

    Good article CAC...

    So now Bid/Ask is locked at this bs of .9715/.9716 and flat-lined there. We are totally being f'd in the arse...

    Who can help us expose these a-holes?
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 10:54 AM
    See, they know that without this stock control (whenever they want to use it), this stock would go up .20 -.30 a day. It is still upticking. And like CAC's article, plenty of people want to buy in to this success story of a company. They just won't allow the stock to run, reflecting the REAL upside action. We're right in the middle of the manipulation shit storm. What's scary is 'they' whoever 'they' really are pumping in all those shares, can obviously put this stock price wherever they want it. Not like most stocks aren't manipulated to enrich the Wall Street wealthy and kick main street's ass and take all our money, but this is unlike anything I've ever seen. Sucks to be us! Oh, and still flat-lining in the 4 digit .97's now for a half hour. Whoa.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 10:58 AM
    Oh yeah..GS up 19 bucks, SIRI now down into the 4 digit .96's...sad.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 11:20 AM
    Howard and Oprah could save Sirius right now if they had any loyalty ......They could buy 10 million shares each at 95 cents , and not even miss the money
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 11:24 AM
    Siri needs more ad revenue ...it does not have to be in the form of a
    "commercial" that interrupts programming .........Coke would pay a million dollars a week , just to have Howard say " I like Coca-Cola " twice a day
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 11:26 AM
    Yes, there are probably a lot of rich folk that would like to invest in this company at these prices, but they are probably waiting on this "Naked Shorting" situation to be cleaned up.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 11:29 AM
    killer...from the other thread...

    I think it's probably true that they will pay a higher rate given their CCC credit rating (and how tight credit is today--not that it's unavailable, just tight and lending institutions are taking advantage of having the upper hand, like the ups and downs of the mortgage market for instance)...how high...good question. I would think there's a good chance they could find something a little lower than the reported 14%. But personally, I think that part will for the short-term be semi-irrelevant since it's mainly SIRI alleviating the default potential that's key. Having a higher interest rate does nothing to their true growth story--which they will easliy prove in the coming Q's.

    What starts to worry me now though is with this clear supression manipulation, will the stock even be free to move up when Mel announces the news. I hope so but I gues we'll just have to see. With all analyst targets over $2, the stock could do that in a few days given that announcement and classic Wall Street euphoria (given normal trading conditions). The question is will 'they' allow that to happen (or maybe the better question is when).
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 11:29 AM
    CACRC - Yes I agree , I think the best news to hit the siri waves yet , is the investigation into stock manipulation .......this might tighten things up a bit , and give siri a little breathing room above a buck
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 11:36 AM
    Sirius back down.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 11:41 AM
    The manipulation of the stock becomes clear right now more than ever. Here they sit @ .97 - .98, when it was clear, the MM's were over a buck and heading higher... At 1.00, 1.01, 1.02, 1.03, 1.04, the Bid/Ask changes normally at the hundreth decimal 1.01, 1.02, with the occaisional thousandth 1.015, 1.021, mixed in. So now as it looks like the MM's were instructed to keep the price below a buck, ALL Bid/Ask's and trades are in the ten-thousandth decimal, .9816, .9817... range-bound and going nowhere. Looks like the MM's got their instructions for today from Big Brother...keep that price under a buck!!!
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 11:44 AM
    Ha There's nygiants again and there he is wrong again.... wasnt it you who predicted .50?? for SIRI like 2 weeks ago
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 11:45 AM
    sl62................ Thanks for that. I can't believe that with the {supposed investigation?} into the stock market manipulation, and with siri's high profile and yet the obvious blatant manipulation taking place within the company's stock price, as you have daily pointed out...................... then how can it be possible for the investigators to be turning a blind eye to siri's plight, when all eyes should apparently be on their lack of diligence.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 11:59 AM
    Mel: ACT NOW, when you can cut the investor exuberance with a knife! Come out with a Sirius XM Game Plan similar to the new US Financial Game Plan. Lets keep it simple. We need two things to keep us rockin. I'd like to see you come out and publically say we will do the following. 1. Revenue generation: Globalization of the SIRI/XM product (growth plan). Make this product international. Newer cooler radios on the way. Franchise out stores to Build a Radio. I want to use the money that I'm going to make on your stock to say Between the Hedges is the MF Man on the face of my radio. I want to tell a store clerk what channels that I want and have them program my radio. Ad money generation on the face of the radio, not on the air. Sirius XM software for I Phone and Zune. New channels - Reality Talk Radio where you can call in and discuss live on sat rad and sat rad will air the following shows and more- America Has Talent, The Apprentice, American Idol, etc.

    2. Re-financing: Refinance the debt. With the excitement generated by the new American Financial Plan and new money freed up by this plan, now is the time to act to give us your public plan to refinance. You personnally need to get the government to attack naked short sellers of our stock. You need to get investors (like the Donald) to invest in this stock.

    NOW is the time to act Mel. DON'T waste this opportunity to act. You are a WINNER. Annihilate those betting against us. Go Dawgs, Beat Arizona State.

    BTH
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 12:04 PM
    Govt to Shorts: Drop Dead.
    Still shorting??
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 12:11 PM
    One other idea and then I'll shut up. Get me a cool radio quick. I really can see myself spending 500 bucks to put a Georgia Helmet flashing accross my screen and to pick a la carte the channels that I want.

    With the existing radios, give them away for free. This would get millions of subscribers and get your old radios off the market.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 12:15 PM
    People would pour into the stores to get a free radio and sign up for 12.95 per month. The cell phone companies do it. Why can't we. We would get millions of subscribers. You could even promote this on TV
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 12:16 PM
    The cooler radios would be like the RAZR. Got to pay up for those, but the ones that are out there now (minus Stilletto and XM To Go) are like the free cell phone. The cell phone cos are making billions off of their service fees, they use the free phone to sign up people. They also are making millions off the sale of more expensive phones.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 12:21 PM
    killer...

    I think it's a clear case of the good 'ol boy network looking out for each other. GS is back up 21 bucks. A good company like SIRI, after doing a righteous deal, with a great product and service for consumers is punished and trading in the ten-thousandth decimals all day?? Wow. What's wrong with that picture? The insult about this is NO STOCK i've ever seen except this one, would trade in ten-thousandth decimals at .98...for hours or days on end!!!!! Total bs. That practice is usually only for stocks that fall below .80, .70, .60, .50....

    We know GS is a culprit in this since they are tied to convertible deal, but also as cos mentioned MS and UBS are in the mix. So all looking out to protect each other so they don't lose making millions of dollars at SIRI's (and our) expense. Interestingly UBS is a MM but they are not one of the most active. Out of the entire book of looks like 31 MM's, there are only a handful that are active. They are (beside NSDQ), NAS, CIN, PSE (they are Pacific Exchange out of San Fran), CSE, JANY (Janney Montgomery Scott) and the extremely evil NITE (Knight Equity). Everyone else is just sitting there over a buck waiting apparently while these guys ten-thousandth themselves to death.

    One of the key things to remember about Market Makers is, it's their responsibility to 'make the market', in other words, keep it trading at all cost. Not only do they represent other clients and brokerages but they can also buy and sell on you themselves. The worst part is they all participate on BOTH sides of the trade Bid AND Ask--so you can see how incestuous Wall Street is. But it looks to me like today they were instructed to keep the price under a buck--which is even right now so easy to see as the Bid/Ask is .9968/.9969 (WHAT?). But this tactic allows them to handle/fill all of the incoming orders and still stay under a buck. Total crap...
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 12:30 PM
    BTH...

    I think of all the ideas going around, I like the ads on the unit screen the best for easy revenue...

    Oh this is cute. right now they are .9998/.9999 Bid /Ask...yet still won't go over a buck!!! Why? because they were told not to!!!
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 12:32 PM
    People can say what they want to about Bush, but when Bush gets pissed he kicks butt. We haven't had a single attack on our soil since 9/11. Unbelievable effort of the Bush administration and our boys and girls in the services. What is the point of this. A good leader acts to destroy those that try to defeat their cause. In this case, its manipulation. If Mel were to act and give us just a game plan as to how he is planning on turning this stock and company around, we wouldn't need to worry about manipulation any more because they would be getting their butts kicked. Mel, come on, you can do it.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 12:32 PM
    B T Hedges... how about offering new radios at a certain price with a rebate feature like all the wireless co's do? Money for use for lets say 90 days until rebated?
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 12:36 PM
    A good article both about solid results advertising on SIRI and also what kind of things that can happen when the evil shorts have their hat handed to them:

    SpongeTech(R) Delivery Systems, Inc. Hits Grand Slam!
    Thursday 09/18/2008 1:42 PM ET - Pr Newswire

    SpongeTech(R) Delivery Systems, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SPNG) is pleased to announce that this past weekend the company started an aggressive marketing campaign utilizing the combined values of Howard Stern, Chris Russo, and NASCAR Radio on SIRIUS Satellite Radio. As a result of this, coupled with our aggressive TV advertising, SpongeTech(R) has booked in the past five days over $1,000,000 in gross internet sales. We are extremely excited about how we are positioning and marketing our product, and feel very strongly that we are on our way to another record quarter. This, combined with our on hand orders that will be shipped this year, could bring our total revenue in excess of $35,000,000, with a proportionate EBITDA to last year's P/L.

    Our Stock Buyback

    With such a volatile stock market comes tremendous opportunity. In light of that, coupled with the change in the SEC shorting rules, the Board has decided to increase our corporate stock buyback in the open market from 25,000,000 shares to 50,000,000 shares effective immediately. We have to date purchased in the open market over 10,000,000 shares thus leaving 40,000,000 more shares to buy. We will continue to communicate with our shareholders, and we thank you all for your support.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 19 12:38 PM
    MM keeping price lucked at 0.99 , SEC is as corrupt as the FCC and the rest of them.
    Reply
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