Trader Mike

Here’s some follow-up on the Cramer market manipulation controversy. (hat tip to MaoXian):

Jim Cramer took the airwaves this morning and backed away from controversial remarks made in a December 2006 internet television interview with TheStreet.com.

A contrite and nervous sounding Cramer told MSNBC’s Don Imus that “mistakes were made” when he appeared on the internet business television show claiming that hedge fund managers were manipulating the market, through both legal and illegal means, making disparaging remarks about his fellow financial journalists at CNBC and the Wall Street Journal, encouraging market players to engage in illegal activity – and implying that he too engaged in illegal activity when he was in the hedge fund business.

“I have to either shut up …

Wow, I can’t believe Cramer admitted to manipulating futures.

“A lot of times when I was short, I would create a level of activity beforehand that would drive the futures. . . . It’s a fun game,” Cramer said in the Webcast, which was moderated by TheStreet.com Executive Editor Aaron Task.

Cramer later said that “no one else in the world would ever admit that, but I don’t care.”

However, seconds later, he acknowledged, “I’m not going to say that on TV,” referring to his show on CNBC.

A remarkably successful money manager when he ran the $450 million Cramer Berkowitz hedge fund, Cramer in the Webcast shared his “tips” on how to drive a stock price down so that a short-position - a bet that a stock price would drop - remains profitable.

He added that the strategy - while illegal - was safe enough because, “the Securities and Exchange Commission never understands this.”

Some people find it hard to believe that this type of stuff goes on but I see shady questionable moves all the time. Check out what Cramer had to say for yourself. I guess this video should be called Manipulation 101 (Edit: In case YouTube pulls the video again, here’s the video on TheStreet.com):

Looks like somebody (those damn daytraders!) plans to have fun with Fuwei Films (Holdings) Co., Ltd (FFHL) today. I always wonder which low float stocks will get gamed during this holiday week. A recent low-float Chinese IPO seems like as good a choice as any. Here’s what Briefing had to say about them last week (emphasis and emoticons are mine):

Fuwei Films IPO prices toward low end of range; Chinese producer of plastic film (8.28 ) : Fuwei Films Holdings (FFHL) prices its IPO at $8.28, towards the low end of the expected range of $8-10, which had been reduced from $8-12. The co makes plastic film ( ) used in consumer packaging (food, drugs, cosmetics), imaging (masking film, printing plates and microfilms), electronics (wire and cable wrap), as well as in magnetic products (audio and video tapes) ( )… Fuwei makes its plastic film using the biaxial oriented stretch technique, known as BOPET film… The co is profitable and posted 1H06 revenue of US$27.5 mln, up 38% yr/yr… Briefing Note: We don’t really have a feel for this one either way and of the four IPOs today, this is the only one not to price at the high end or above range so traders have other names to focus on today. However, since it’s a low profile, Chinese deal with a small offering at 3.75 mln shares, we would keep it on the radar. eFuture (EFUT) had similar characteristics and was eventually picked up by the momentum crowd for a huge move last month.

Let the game of FFHL hot-potato begin…

On Today’s Calendar:

Nothing today

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

I know I have a bit of “conspiracy theorist” in me but isn’t it obvious that *somebody* knew last week that PortalPlayer (Nasdaq: PLAY) would be acquired by Nvdia today. Here’s the chart, which is straight up 20% since they reported earnings and so-so guidance last week:

I just found a good article discussing the ‘art of buying thinly traded stocks.‘ It has some great information about such stocks, despite the author’s low blow at bloggers. Here’s a snippet (emphasis is mine):

If you’re interested in doing some research into the VoIP space you may want to start at Jeff Pulver’s weblog. He’s the co-founder of Vonage and several other organizations, and will be speaking to Congress at tomorrow’s VoIP hearing. I especially like the post of his that points out the lunacy of Thanksgiving week stock moves. As the article that Jeff links states, moves during this week can be greatly exaggerated because many of the ‘pros’ are on vacation.

I can’t say that the VoIP stocks will roll over and die tomorrow, but I sure wouldn’t want to do anything with them …