On May 20th 1998, one of the major TV stations (cnbc) reported that Neo Therapeutics of Irvine California has basically found the cure for Alzheimer disease. They have mentioned a story about an interview with the CEO in Italy about trials of their drug and reported that ALL 60 patients treated with the drug showed major improvements (the movie awakening with comes to mind here). When the market closed, the stock editor (Joe)for this television stations had a special segment about the news from Italyand was practically in tears of joy reporting this story (again the movie awakening comes to mind). The stock was mentioned numerous times throughout the day on this station and was the biggest percentage gainer of the trading day.
The stock went up to 21 from a closing price of 9.56 the previous day. I did a very simple math. There are over 4,000,000 people in the U.S. with Alzheimer. If they were to use one pill a day, and the pill would cost $3.00, then it would translate into 4.38 billion dollars in annual revenues. The market cap of the company was about 150 million at the time. If it were to be valued at a multiple of one to its annual revenues, the stock price would be at $584 a share. Consequently, I didnât think twice about it and bought the stock at 19.75. Although the stock was up over 100% in one day, it was trading at 97% discount to what could be a âfairâ valuation. It isnât very often that you get the chance to buy 100-dollar bill for three bucks.
I couldnât sleep all night. I was so excited for the numerous Alzheimer patients across the globe who finally had hope to get over this painful disease. However, the next morning, the news werenât so great. The CEO of NEOT was âmysteriouslyâ misquoted. I ended up taking a big loss on my position. NEOT was the biggest percentage loser that day, but what was truly amazing was the fact that the television station, which pumped the stock the previous day, did not mention it even once. They did not say or explain anything that took place that day as if NEOT did not even exist.
In the early 90âs, there was a guy on this television station who had a special report (Dan). Every time he was reporting on a particular stock or sector, he was completely out of breath. I always thought that he was going to have a heart attack in the middle of his report. This guy was the king of pump and dump for his Wall Street buddies. I remember one incident when he called a $3.00 stock to go up to $12. The stock went up to $6.00 on his report, which was the highest price it ever traded at. It was a penny stock shortly after.
Once this guy (Dan)âleftâ the television station, a new guy (Joe)came a long and took his place. The new guy was directly responsible to moving many stocks sharply in price in 1998-1999. He was more cautious in 2000 and 2001 probably because of all the complaints the network received. However, he still moves stocks once in a while by teasing the viewers about his upcoming report. In the meantime, the ones who know which stock he is going to talk about are buying it. Once he actually releases the report after the teasing the viewer, the ones who previously bought the stock will sell it to the viewers who are watching the report and taking action. Again, the stock editor costs the unfortunate viewers money.
