An update on DJT stock
The baffling behavior of DJT on the market.
A quick recap. Last week, I made a couple of posts on the slide of the DJT stock, the ticker for TMTG1. The prior Friday, the lock-up period ended, and the smart money all was on Trump unloading as much as possible.
But being the majority shareholder he has to notify the SEC before sales, and to date, that filing hasn’t happened or been posted.
But, volumes were 3-7X the daily average all last week, hovering nearer 20M shares changing hands per day. All that liquidity had to come from somewhere, and it appears that the original founders, and ALL the other insiders have completely liquidated their shares.
Yep, Devin Nunes and the other scummy people in the insiders group are dumping the stock.
Additionally, all the early institutional backers of the DWAC SPAC2 that ponied up the capital for SPAC to use to take TMTG public. I won’t go into the details, but if you do dive into it (I recommend Wikipedia’s article on SPAC’s) you will probably think this is sorta like money laundering.
These “sophisticated” investors pumped in about $100M of funds at $10 a share. Whilst they would have loved to unload in March at the IPO when DJT flirted with $80 a share, they certainly will take the $2-$4 a share gain and vacate the premises.
And that appears to be what happened last week.
But the really off thing is that after Tuesday last week, the stock actually went up.
$13, to $15, to $16. How the hell did this happen with the insiders unloading their shares to recognize any profit that they could.
What I believe happened is that each day at opening bell, there was a large block that was proffered for sale, and that fed the day’s rise. But the rise was caused by fairly low volume over time, and buyers anxious to get a piece of DJT, aka the MAGA rubes, who are hungry to own a piece of TMTG.
I mean just last week Trump announced his $99 NFT collection, a coin by the World Liberty Financial group, and the Trump watches, where for a mere $100,000 you can own a non-waterproof, generic Swiss(ish) movement in a 18carat gold case (the value of the gold is worth about $13K). Limited edition of 147 (presumably since there are three colors of gold cases, that means that there are 441 total of these fine chronometers3)
Nope, the Rubes saw this as a way to get a piece of Trump for less than $20. WOOHOO. Yay for capitalism.
They might want to get a penicillin shot for that though.
The billion dollar question
What is puzzling to me is why Trump isn’t just unloading the stock. I mean it could be that he just keeps forgetting to file the paperwork. But I doubt that. He has “people” to do that shit for him.
Or, he could be confident that he will win, and the foreign influencers will use this as a vehicle to tickle Trump’s ego, and drive up the price per share.
But I don’t believe that.
What I think is that someone who understands his finance and the stock market has Trump’s ear, and told him that cashing out prior to the election will be a bad look, and that Trump actually like having his own private echo chamber4.
Regardless, I expect that I will get plenty of more enjoyment of watching the tribulations.
The fact that the entire executive team and the early institutional backers no longer have any skin in the game will make it interesting to see how the stock goes. As long as there are unsophisticated rubes who want a piece of Trump, there will be buyers, and the stock will trade at a price that is way too high for the fundamentals.
Trump Media Technology Group
A SPAC is a Special Purpose Acquisition Company that is a vehicle for shitty startups to go public without the scrutiny that a normal event demands. It is “cheating”, and a huge red flag.
I may not be a watch person, but it pains me to use the word “chronometer” adjacent to “Trump Watch”
I call this the ‘Elon Musk’ syndrome
I think there’s also another reason. Just about a week ago, the CONVICTED FELON was quoted as saying he wasn’t going to sell his stock (I believe a reporter asked him that question). He probably, as usual, just spouted that out without realizing what consequences it might have, wanting to appear loyal to his own company. He should have talked to his lawyers before saying anything. Now, he likely has. If he were to sell now, so shortly after denying he would, he would be violating securities law rules on disclosure of significant information. The SEC could take action or other shareholders could sue. He doesn’t need that publicity or legal jeopardy in the ending weeks of this campaign, while he still thinks he can win, or claim to.
Oh, Geoff. This is delicious. I’m distracted a lot lately (new job, bonehead beginner blues), and you put Schadenfreude in to go containers for me to enjoy.