Get Rich Or Die Tryin

So, have you ever heard of H&H Imports, Inc?

 

No?  Well, you must not be one of the 3.8 million Twitter followers of rapper 50 Cent, who seems to have indulged himself in a little[1] market manipulation last weekend.  His tweets included statements like "You can double your money right now.  Just get what you can afford"[2].  A few others have been archived on Thisis50.com.

 

But don't take my word for it.  Here's the chart for HNHI:

 

Pretty much $0.05/share until January 10, the first trading day after the tweets went out.  That day, HNHI opened at $0.45 and closed at $0.39, with a volume of 8.9 million shares (about 10 times greater than normal).

 

For what it's worth, it doesn't appear that Curtis Jackson III[3] was indulging in a "pump & dump" scheme, mostly because he owns 30 million shares (12.9%) of the company and there are no SEC filings indicating that he attempted to sell during that time.  On the other hand, he's got a massive stack of warrants that are really only valuable to him if HNHI manages to get its stock price above - get this - $0.50 per share.

 

What's the world coming to, when you can't trust a rapper to give you useful investment advice?

 

[1]  For purposes of this article, "little" is defined as an estimated $8.7 million.

[2]  There were others.  They have been deleted.

[3]  That's 50 Cent's real name.