http://www.activistpost.com/2014/05/trollc-hacktivist-hedge-fund-seeks.html Your thoughts GC? Is this ethical in your opinion, is this something you would personally donate towards?
This is a huge insider trading violation and a huge violation of the theories of efficient markets. The second news gets out, good or bad, markets will respond. By short selling these stocks and getting abnormal returns, they're participating in tading with insider information illegally obtained. Guarantee the SEC will shut them down before they get started if that's their means of quantitative analysis.
are you sure it counts as insider trading if they arent talking to anybody and instead do their own analysis of something most firms wouldnt monitor?
If they have to illegally obtain the information, it's not just insider trading but cyber crimes etc. Other than that, if any information had been made public, market prices had instantly adjusted accordingly. From what this Andrew guy has said so far they're not too sure how a hedge fund works. The fact that investor dividends are paid in "lulz" means they'll be raking in big returns, and not giving you asset appreciation. Seems more like a donation... Unfortunately for this guy, evil companies can exceed forecasts and good companies can fall short of forecasts. Good public image doesnt always mean positive earnings, which is what investors care about. If his strategy is to short sell every company who's polluted then he's not going to do very well.