About a month ago I was moved to write to Mr FB – part of which I show below – the rest you can see on my personal profile.
"Dear Mr Fake Foney Facebook, please stop sending me these childish notices that you are making me videos because you care, or you're bringing back memories for me - if I need these I can generate them myself - don’t pretend to be a human with heart - after all, you are a mere monolithic data cruncher generating such inane messages… One day you will over-step one more time and we will leave in droves….
I had a look at your video - it's a load of ***** with emphasis on stuff that does not matter, including two pictures of two people I've never even met - so your algorithms are not even within a bulls roar of my reality!!
Makes your gaggle look a real giggle!!’’
Since then FB seems to have stepped up its campaign for me to like them with an even greater rapid fire of such messages.
Clearly, even before last week’s stock price rout, internally they knew they had a major PR battle on their hands.
We have known that for months and hence the charm offensive.
But maybe there is more fall out ahead with data breaches/legal action etc. Could be on the nose for a while...
I write this week about the FB share price cliff dive; not to share my opinion but rather that when such events happen I am always curious about who knew what when.
Let’s firstly look at the share price recent action:
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Facebook (FB:NASD) - Daily Line Chart
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Click to Enlarge
Other than the dramatic share price fall, there was little desertion of the stock as per the OBV.
This picture did not ring true and I had to drill down a little more.
So, I looked at raw volume and compared daily moves with a bar chart which I rarely use:
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Facebook (FB:NASD) - Daily Line Chart
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Click to Enlarge
A day before the sudden drop there was a share price spike (yellow) accompanied by an upward spike in volume (the arrow). In fact, for a couple of days before the fallout.
Somebody knew something and got out in time and not only that, they managed to move the share price higher.
A clever piece of work.
I have no answers but maybe we might know more in the days ahead.
Of course, in the bigger scheme of things the FB story is an impressive one from some perspectives but I sense maybe there is more fallout ahead. Another empire crumbling from within?
Maybe some Instos are timing profit taking to perfection. A look at the monthly chart says the main game is over for a while – unless FB can reinvent itself with a strategy bigger than making us memory lane videos.
Enjoy the ride
Tom Scollon
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