Pump and dump is trending.
I wonder why?
š šš¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£ pic.twitter.com/jS64O3yXg3— Agolf Twitler Slayer (@slayer_agolf) April 1, 2024
Trump's pump-and-dump lost 20% of its value the first day it appeared on the NASDAQ.
Today was a good day.
— Ragnarok Lobster šŗ (@eclecticbrotha) April 1, 2024
Per CNN, “Trumpās net worth plunges $1 billion as his media stock tumbles”:
Shares of Truth Social owner Trump Media & Technology Group plunged Monday after the company disclosed that it lost more than $58 million and generated very little revenue in 2023. Former President Donald Trump is the companyās majority shareholder, and his net worth tumbled by more than $1 billion Monday as a result.
The figures underscore why some experts warn Trump Mediaās multibillion-dollar valuation defies logic and is reminiscent of the meme stock craze.
In a regulatory filing on Monday, Trump Media said it lost $58.2 million in 2023, compared with a profit of $50.5 million in 2022…
Former President Donald Trump owns a commanding stake of 78.8 million shares in the newly public company. At Monday afternoonās prices, that stake is now worth approximately about $3.8 billion. This represents a massive boost to Trumpās net worth, though it is down significantly from a peak of about $6.3 billion just last week.
The losses disclosed Monday are so severe that Trump Mediaās accountants warned at the time they āraise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern,ā which is Wall Street for: We may not be able to stay in business. That warning echoes one made in November when accountants said Trump Media might not survive unless it soon completes its merger to go public…
The problem for Trump Media is its main product ā Truth Social ā is shrinking.
Monthly active US users on iOS and Android plunged in February to 494,000, down 51% year-over-year, according to Similarweb. By comparison, X has 75 million monthly active US users. Even Threads has more than 10 times as many users as Truth Social, according to Similarweb…
I think theyāre trying to get in the record books for the worldās largest Ponzi scheme, but the cryptocurrency elites have already beat them to that.
— Lonnie Hammack (@hammackl) April 1, 2024
Trump getting your 1/6 suspect uncle to invest his life savings in Truth Social https://t.co/4oTHUbiINd pic.twitter.com/DVte4VTV4W
— zeddy (@Zeddary) April 1, 2024
Per the Washington Post, “Trump Media stock plunges as 2023 Truth Social loss put at $58 million”:
… The new financial figures throw into stark relief the gap between Trump Mediaās highly hyped investor-driven valuation on the public stock market and the reality of its business performance.
They also raise questions about the possibility that Trump could use the company as a financial lifeline. Trump cannot sell his shares or use them as collateral for a loan for six months due to a provision in the companyās merger agreement, known as a lockup.
The companyās board could vote to waive that requirement but has yet to do so, the filings state. Cashing out early could sink the stock price further by flooding the market with shares and undermining investor confidence in Trumpās commitment to the brand, financial analysts said.
Trump, who invested no money in Trump Media, was given 78 million shares of the company last week and stands to earn tens of millions more over the next three years if the stock stays above $12 to $17, a filing shows.
Trump Media said in a filing that it expects to incur more āoperating losses and negative cash flowsā as it works to expand its user base but that it expects its growth will come from Truth Socialās āoverall appeal.ā…
You have no idea how many morons will throw more money down our rathole!…
This is a classic example of a āPUMP AND DUMPā!!!
The price of the stock goes up on hyped up news then the insiders sell off their shares, stock price goes down and the public is left with the losses!#FraudGuarantee https://t.co/LpkETHzU73
— Lev Parnas (@levparnas) April 1, 2024
Baud
But the polls say that the stock price is really high.
Baud
Higher than I would have expected.
Ken
How fortunate that the merger was completed just days before this distressing news came out.
Urza
@Baud: They never had a huge user base.Ā News orgs got into it though after they missed out on some other tech trend right before it first came out.Ā Twitter hasn’t lost nearly as many users, at least that they report, as we would imagine given all the uproar of it being taken over and platforming nazis.
Damien
@Baud: Thereās a lot of unemployed Russians š¤·āāļø
Sure Lurkalot
I get it that a fool and his money are soon parted but just how many fools are there?
Inquiring minds (don’t) want to know.
Anne Laurie
If my very tiny, never-use-the-‘For You’ feed is any indication, at least a third of those users are bots & (other) scam artists.
terraformer
Make no mistake – everything bad that happens to this person is subsequently used as “rigged” or somesuch
the same orange fella who is so fixated on stock market performance will seamlessly pivot to his losses as “very unfair” and “the worst hoax the world has ever seen” and, of course, will blame it – directly, indirectly, or both, on Jews
Urza
@Sure Lurkalot: Nearly 50% of the American voting public would be a good starting estimate.
Jay
The Vancouver Stock Exchange was infamous for decades for “penny stock” pump and dumps.
Most common were carousel scams. Guy 1 sells his 1,000 shares of “Stock Nym here”, valued at $0.02 a share to Guy 2, at $0.08. Stock price goes up on the VSE to $0.08. Guy 2 sells to Guy 3 at $0.12. Guy 3 sells to Guy 4 at $0.15, Guy 4 sells to Guy 1 at $0.20 and so on, a trend line is established, and people outside the scam think, what do these “buyers” know that I don’t?
Quite often, (because this was often done with mining stocks, issued by a Company with just a PO Box and often not even a valid mineral claim), there would be an announcement of a planned merger or new “profitable” assay results and the stock price would triple.
Only to collapse after the four cashed out and the Company would go dormant once again.
Given the dominance of algorithmic trading, (invented by Al Gore), I am surprise that more pump and dumps don’t happen.
brendancalling
Anyone who invested in this obvious scam deserves everything they get.
Martin
Just to let people know, it’s impossible to verify those are US users. That could easily be 494,000 FSB bot accounts being managed through a VPN connected to a US IP address.
Social media companies can verify this by doing some work. None do, and none want to.
Jackie
Sorry to go OT, but this is important for Floridians! Not only do they get to vote for abortion, they also get to vote on legalizing recreational pot!
Jay
@Ken:
the “news” was part of the SEC filings. Up until the merger was approved and open trading began, there were few “real” numbers, it was all hype. The SEC however demands “real” numbers, (not TIFG imaginary numbers).
Albatrossity
How is it possible to “invest no money” in a business and end up with millions of shares of that business?
Baffling.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: It simply doesn’t have a good substitute yet. It takes time to form those social networks.
Baud
@Albatrossity:
Employment contract, with a dash of self dealing.
zhena gogolia
@Jackie: I think that’s what the post below this one is about.
Citizen Alan
@Baud:Ā I wonder how many of those 75 million are like me–permanently suspended after telling some piece of Trump Trash exactly what I thought of them yet unable to leave the platform because if you’re suspended, you don’t have access to delete the account.
Jay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_World_Acquisition_Corp
Urza
@Albatrossity: The entire business has absolutely no draw without him and won’t exist if he can’t post.
ronno2018
sadly it will take years for it to drop like gamestop did.
Anoniminous
@Martin:
Post-Reality Capitalism depends on Company A believing Company’s B Bullshit and Company B believing Company C’s Bullshit and Company C believing Company A’s Bullshit.
Where “Bullshit” is defined Frankfurtianly.
Jay
@Albatrossity:
Lots of people get “paid” in stock. Look at Muskrat.
PsiFighter37
Honestly, the only reason to invest in DJT is if you believe Trump is going to turn the US into a truly authoritarian country where news outlets are obligated to post on Truth Social.
There’s a reason all the smart money out there is short as much of the stock as possible.
Ishiyama
Well, it looks to me like charges of criminal fraud might be in order.
Frankensteinbeck
By the time Trump is allowed to sell stock it will be worthless.Ā He’s one of the marks here.Ā I find that funny.
@Urza:
Yeah, I thought it would die faster, but it is dying.Ā Musk is keeping it financially afloat with his own money, and it has been steadily losing accounts, down 18% in the last year.Ā Again, it’s a steady drop, not an initial drop then leveling off, and no other platform is showing anything close to that.
@Albatrossity:
The merger was obviously rigged.Ā Very, very obviously.Ā Truth Social doesn’t fit the definition of what the merger company told their investors they were buying at all.
As for the ‘invest no money’, Trump got lots of stock in Truth Social because he was in charge and its face, not an investor.Ā It’s not unusual.Ā Then that became lots of stock of a much more valuable company during the merger.
Which is obviously a scam, and the guys who rigged it are getting out with the money.Ā Trump is left holding the bag.
Martin
@Anoniminous: Well, to be fair, that’s how it always worked. But now we have these near-instantaneous globe-spanning and dirt cheap to implement digital communication systems to turn that wheel faster than humans can process. By the time someone sticks their hand up and says ‘this is bullshit’ which might be hours, someone else has cashed out a million dollars.
Martin
@Ishiyama: I wouldn’t count on it. Right now this is all an unintended ‘feature’ of how these markets work.
It should be criminal, but it’s not. I don’t have a lot of faith there’s 60 votes in the Senate to fix it properly either.
Eolirin
@Martin: There might be fifty, if we can get rid of the filibuster. But that’s still probably only a maybe.
Anoniminous
@Ishiyama:
Adam Neumann walked away free & clear with $1.7 billion after the WeWork scam collapsed.Ā Do it right and there’s all kinds of money to be made.
See Jay’s Vancouver Stock Market Pump & Dumps for another example.
WaterGirl
@brendancalling:
Fixed that for you. :-)
Another Scott
@Frankensteinbeck:
If he’s forced to keep to the 6-month timeline, yes. Hehe.
It would be good to see the SPAC MotUs left holding the bag, also too.
Cheers,
Scott.
hueyplong
Wouldn’t mind seeing a bunch of Trumpist investors ruined.Ā Maybe personal bankruptcy will accomplish what nothing else could among certain of the cult members.
danielx
@Sure Lurkalot:
Here in the US? Around 74 million, give or take a quarter million. That’s voters, to be sure.
JaneE
This is far from the first company to be seriously overvalued, but this has to be one of the most. Obviously idiotic investments I have ever seen. At least Tesla has a product that they sell for money and maybe profit. The people at least used to want to buy quite often. But truth social come on. Nobody wants it.
Anoniminous
@Martin:
Humans haven’t been making Buy/Sell decisions in the Real Time financial markets for decades.Ā The markets are too big and too complicated.Ā Just in the USD Forex market there are $7.5 trillion worth of transactions per day (2022 figure.)Ā It’s all done by millisecond-to-millisecond Financial Analysis on computers with minimal oversight by humans.
Jay
@Another Scott:
NotMax
It’s Baldricks all the way down.
Without the turnips. ;)
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Sure Lurkalot: And when will they be parted with the last of their money?!?!
JGreen
@Sure Lurkalot:Ā Ā I want to know how the fool got the money in the first place.
Freemark
@Another Scott:Ā ā
He put no money into it so he can’t lose. Plus Fidelity is showing that DJT is paying a $0.25 per share dividend this month. Haven’t been able to confirm anywhere else. If true Trump will make $20 million cash. The SPAC had at least $200 million in cash before merger so it can do this.
Anoniminous
@NotMax:
But not without a cunning plan.
scav
As though they donāt know all the background ways to profit from these classic oldies. Ā The headline magical unsellable shares bring the pious veil to this multiply layered dance of find the pea nonsense.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Sure Lurkalot: And when will they finally be parted with the last of their money?!?!
thruppence
There should be a tiny per transaction excise tax that could feather the brakes on all these millions of automated transactions.
Never gonna happen but still.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Sure Lurkalot: And when will they finally be parted with the last of their money?
TBone
@Jay: how in the gatdang world is this utter shitstorm even legal.
Bill Arnold
Sheesh, people.
It is a “Trump and Dump”.
B1naryS3rf
I have a protected Xitter account. I used to get an average of one follow request every few months. Now I get something like 4-5 a day, all pron scammers of course. If the interface on Bluesky were as polished I’d dump it right now.
No sympathy for any greed head or MAGAt investor. They should’ve listened to king MAGAt himself: https://youtu.be/IxaaJY605mQ?si=6pgMXgdv2QPQk1gf
Shalimar
I get that no one wants to advertise on Truth Social and it does not have very many users, which explains the complete lack of revenue.Ā But there is obvious demand for the stock.Ā That should mean that offering some membership level at $x per month would be a lot more successful than Twitter has been at the same thing.Ā Surely they can get some revenue from that, at least enough to where it isn’t losing money every quarter.
karen marie
@Urza: I heard a news report the other day, when TFG’ s thing went public, that twitter has lost 25% of US active users every year since Musk bought it. I think global numbers were down 15% each year.
TBone
@B1naryS3rf: šā¤ļø video is š„
bbleh
@brendancalling: I have NO sympathy at ALL for those fools. Ā If ever there were clearer, louder signs of a scam from more sources, I don’t know when it was.
Frankly, better their money go to his legal fees than to Republican campaigns where it might have some effect.
Jay
@Shalimar:
as the price drop shows, there is minimal interest in buying the stock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special-purpose_acquisition_company
Two Chinese State backed Corporations are the biggest investors in the SPAC,
NotMax
Poseidon Adventure II: The Wreckoning.
:)
MattF
All more or less legal. The US philosophy about protecting investors is to mandate that potential investors be supplied with all the adequate and true relevant information. If those potential investors proceed to flush assets down the toilet despite the flashing lights and waving red flags, thatās just too bad. Itās how natural selection does its job.
different-church-lady
More like Chump and Dump.
danielx
OT but happy: six weeks with arm in a sling over today. At least I can wear a coat or jacket normally!
mrmoshpotato
So the orange shitstain is also a loser at social media.Ā Well done, Dump!
ColoradoGuy
Not that different than Bitcoin. Speculation piled on speculation, using arcane formulas combined with legalese and lots and lots of lawyers.
Underlying value: Zero.
Tony G
I have a hard time feeling sympathy for anyone who buys ANYTHING that Trump is selling — whether sneakers, Bibles or stocks. Ā Burning your money in a dumpster is much more prudent investment.
sdhays
Dagnabit, Dumpy Dump managed to post the $175m bond for his fraud appeal. Oh, well.
Bill Arnold
Forbes, earlier today:
Trump Media’s 1,470 price-to-sales ratio, which compares a company’s total valuation to its last 12-month sales, is exponentially higher than social media peers Reddit and Snap’s respective 9 and 4 price-to-sales ratios.
(It was well over 2000 to 1 at one point on opening day, IIRC)
A grocery store chain does OK to have a price to sales ratio of 0.2
Quadrillipede
The beatings will continue until at least 55% of US voters internalize the manifest reality that nothing good can happen while Republicans continue to have any political power whatsoever.
Dan B
@sdhays: The insurance company that posted Trump’s bond is located in the Cayman Islands.Ā It has a very low Chamber of Commerce rating.
NotMax
Short-term alert for video gamers.
Free on Steam today only, Content Warning.
Jackie
Judge Merchan has expanded TIFGās gag order to cover Braggsā and his family members.
eversor
Trump just posted bond with a secured loan.Ā So… skates again.
Jackie
@sdhays: Hereās more info about who bailed him out:
According to ABC News, “Trump secured the bond through Knight Specialty Insurance Company.”
Mike in NC
That made my week and it’s only Monday.
Ksmiami
@ColoradoGuy: at least tulips are edibleā¦
Melancholy Jaques
@Quadrillipede:
The larger problem is convincing them that the Democratic Party is not to going take away their hamburgers, golf courses, or big pick-ups, that they will not impose Sharia Law, and that all the things they have been scared of for the past 50 years or so are in their imaginations.
The don’t vote for Republicans as much as they vote against Democrats. The highly effective right-wing propaganda has convinced to associate all their fears and grievances with Democrats.
JoyceH
I kind of love that the stockās ticker initials are DJT so that Trump can watch the value of his own initials sink and sink and sink.
NotMax
@JoyceH
The last time DJT was listed on an exchange it didn’t go well.
Roberto el oso
I’m utterly clueless when it comes to stocks etc. But I keep seeing that one of the reasons for the rapid tumble is the revelation, today, Monday, that Truth Social lost $58 million, considerably less than what they brought in. And yet I can swear I’ve seen that figure mentioned for some weeks now, and definitely prior to the stock going public so ….. even in my cluelessness it doesn’t seem possible that this jumped out at me but not investors (including, presumably, some folks who do this for a living)
Of course, as is the nature with so many things related to high finance, it’s possible that I simply “don’t understand how these things work”.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:Ā ā
‘Monthly users’ seems like a pretty thin usage level. I’d really like to see what’s happened to daily users. I’m almost surely a ‘monthly user’ from the times I inadvertently click on one of AL’s links. But I woudn’t think the five minutes I spend there each month, even multiplied by a million others, would give advertisers much of an incentive to spend any money there.
Bill Arnold
@Jackie:
Knight Insurance Group
Which includes “Knight Specialty Insurance Company”
Trump Touched them; it would be wise for the company to prepare to die.
NotMax
NYSE trivia:
NotMax
Speaking of the NYSE, the story behind the bell(s) is pretty interesting.
Jackie
@Bill Arnold: Also GQP based; yet another reasonā¦ š¤
mrmoshpotato
@Bill Arnold:
LMAO!
rikyrah
@Jay:
And you can go to jail for falsifying documents
frosty
@danielx: Great news! After wearing a sling in college for six weeks I know what you’re going through. It was on my dominant hand, too, so writing finals left-handed was a skill I had to learn rapidly!
frosty
@Jackie: TFG needs to spend a night in jail to teach him not to spew violence. I hope he violates the gag order and the judge brings the hammer down.
Brachiator
@Ksmiami:
And you can tiptoe through them.
frosty
@NotMax:Ā āHere’s the clue. The company went bankrupt but TFG made money. I read a couple of days ago that the way the transactions went down it was a classic Bustout. He bought the casinos, loaded them up with debt, took the equity, and bankrupted them.
Jackie
@frosty: I wish! WE wish!Ā I did hear on the Lawrence OāDonnell show, that if he violates the new updated gag order, the judge can prevent him from being privy to the jurors names. For THEIR SAKESĀ I hope he does! TIFG will publicly name them, otherwise – gag order be damned.
Shalimar
@Roberto el oso: The new numbers reported today were from 2023.Ā There were similar losses in 2021 and 2022, though this past year was worse than expected.Ā So numbers have been out there and this was expected by anyone paying attention, but there is new information too.
Soprano2
So the tornado sirens are going off right now. It seems to be north of Springfield, hope it stays there. It’s a confirmed tornado, not radar indicated. It might get the airport!
Jay
@rikyrah:
SPAC’s don’t own anything, don’t make anything, don’t sell anything, (other than shares). As they are just a big pile of money, don’t have to disclose shareholders and are publicly traded, there is no need for fraudulent documents, (other than perhaps Exec compensation and the amount of money being held).
Where fraud comes in is when you tell the SEC, “nope, we are still looking for a buy option and arn’t negotiating with anyone”, when you are, or if insiders are engaging in trades on the basis of yet public or complete specific plans.
And as we have seen tens of thousands of times, the SEC prefers that a Corp rearranges the deck chairs and pays a minor fine.
Truth Social didn’t engage in any fraud, either, their numbers were well known.
As we have seen with other events, (Tom Brady, Xshitter, FTX, Theranos) when there is stupid money chasing a property, the market valuation goes a little insane.
Later, reality intrudes.
David šCaitlin Clarkš Koch
karen marie
@Jackie:
Famous last words!
Old School
@Soprano2: Stay safe!
Since your post was 20 minutes ago, hopefully itās all passed through by now.
Soprano2
@Old School: Yep, it’s to the east now. It’s raining buckets and the wind is blowing, but no tornados. Still could get hail, though. I’m watching “weather porn” right now. No Colbert for us tonight!
frosty
@NotMax:Ā āYou didn’t post the quote in the article about the electrician who found a bell in the crawl space. 27″ diameter, much bigger that they were using, covered in dust.
Great story, thanks for sharing it.ā
Jackie
Erin Burnett, CNN, interviewed RFK Jr tonight. I watched this show specifically to see him in an actual interview vs the snippets Iād seen. First off, JFC, heās more hyper than Bing, Bing, Bing Ricochet Rabbit! Heās absolutely ALL OVER THE PLACE. Something tells me he doesnāt take meds that would actually help keep him focused on the actual subject at hand. Burnett did an incredible job harnessing him to the subject – which primarily was how he could consider Biden a bigger threat to democracy than the person who incited an insurrection. Burnett dedicated 2/3s of her program interviewing him. Well worth the watch if you have access to CNN.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/rfk-jr-calls-biden-greater-threat-democracy-trump-rcna145961
prostratedragon
Proposition: The battle against cynicism cannot be won.
karen marie
@prostratedragon:Ā Ā Someone mentioned Mr. Hankey?
Glidwrith
@frosty: Isnāt that precisely what Romney does?
frosty
@Glidwrith:Ā āYes, that’s precisely what Romney and the Vulture Capitalists do. Goodbye K&B Toys, Toys’R’Us, and many others. Those were good businesses!!!ā
Jackie
Is this a possibility?
Melancholy Jaques
@Jackie:
Thanks for your brief summary. I cannot watch that guy.
Melancholy Jaques
@Jackie:
There isn’t really a moratorium on new permits for LNG export facilities. The White House announced a pause in issuing new permits so the DOE can consider additional factors, including impact on climate change, but mostly potential impact on domestic supply.
In my view, it would be a small price to pay for Ukraine aid and, if anyone cares, it’s total pork for Johnson. The facility that has been trying for a permit for the last couple years is in Lake Charles, LA.
SilentZ
@eversor: He’s not exactly skating — the appeals court hasn’t taken the case yet; this just gives him a chance. And if he does get to appeal, it’ll be a few months before it’s heard, but he’s already paying like 8-9% interest on that whole 400-odd million; half a year of that is $25 million. Then the $175 mil bond probably is charging him 10% interest easy, which means that if he does buy himself time here, it could cost him like $50 million more. And he’s not going to win that appeal even if he gets one.
-Z
Ruckus
@Citizen Alan:
Same here. I’d bet it’s set up that way so that even if you don’t have access or even if you want to leave – you can’t. Which means they get to count you as a member, even if you can’t even see the site. Which is where I’m at. I wonder how many of that 75 million really are not using the site at all – like me.
gene108
I find the $50.5 million in profit hard to believe. Most startups canāt turn a profit that quickly, and Truth Social only started after Trump for kicked off Twitter in 2021.
prostratedragon
@karen marie:Ā Goodness, it’s even worse than I thought, as I’m not very familiar with South Park.
trnc
Too early to tell, but it made up a little ground after being down by 25% so unless it absolutely craters out this week, it’s probably around for a while. He will make a net profit no matter what because his investment was zero.
I’ll be obsessively checking the price, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up too much that it tanks. Of course, happy to be wrong in this case.