

The $12.5 Billion Tweet - _pius
http://www.ted.me/the-12-5-billion-tweet/

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mdda
I hate to pour cold water on this, but the tweet wasn't the value here : It
was the announcement itself. Making it in the newspaper (as would have been
done in the past) would have been just as effective. Or via Bloomberg (on
their terminals).

OTOH, adding the detail about talking to the CEO is a little odd : Is the
implication that he's trading on information that he got from a private
conversation? The whole area is a little murky, I guess, because the intention
to buy a block should also be material market-affecting information, but
somehow it's not against the rules.

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fjcaetano
I didn't get your point. Of course the tweet isn't worth a damn, but the
information is. Just like newspaper as you said.

But, since he chose Tweeter to disclose those news, his tweet, in fact, is
worth $12.5B

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fjcaetano
Just adding another thing: what's to be contested in this article is if the
tweet was the only thing that leveraged Apple's stocks to those values. Of
course it may have been replicated everywhere, but was really just those few
characters that generated that boom?

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fivethree
A well known investor saying, "I bought a lot of AAPL because I think it's
undervalued," caused the boom.

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shadeless
Until the site comes back online, here is the tweet:
[https://twitter.com/Carl_C_Icahn/status/367350206993399808](https://twitter.com/Carl_C_Icahn/status/367350206993399808)

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mrkmcknz
Does anyone on here know whether this was in fact posted as 'chatter' via
Bloomberg terminals before the tweet or not.

Surely there's a Wall Street guy with access to a terminal on HN.

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eksith
Isn't it more accurate to call it a $12.5 billion carefully timed _leak_?
Stock market should work on properly assessed value, but more often than not,
works on tidbits of info (legitimately derived or otherwise) that extrapolate
value.

It's a Kessler syndrome for trades.

Let's see what happens when the market opens tomorrow.

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bagosm
Well ok, but how can you prove the correlation ?

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lmartel
I think you meant prove the causation. I can prove they're correlated: they
both happened!

You're right that it's always good to be skeptical about extreme claims, but I
think in this case it's pretty reasonable to assume that AAPL stock jumping
when a famous investor announces "I bought a billion dollars of this stock and
it's still undervalued" isn't a coincidence.

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mugenx86
From Ichan's Twitter bio: "Some people get rich studying artificial
intelligence. Me, I make money studying natural stupidity."

Ichan probably foresaw the impact of his tweet. He probably made millions, and
will make a few more million by taking a short position on AAPL in the coming
days.

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etler
Someone wanted to one up the 4 million dollar complain call...
[http://www.inc.com/ron-burley/4-million-complaint-
call.html](http://www.inc.com/ron-burley/4-million-complaint-call.html)

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JoeAltmaier
Fictitious value? Like Dutch tulip bulbs, it depends upon the gullibility of
the public.

So he created a bubble. A least he disclosed his position, se he's not liable.

