More 8th-hand rumours...
...masquerading as fact. Srsly, couldn't you at least look at this in light of the recent high profile grilling of Wall St loudmouth and "investment guru" Jim Cramer as seen on The Daily Show?
A salient excerpt, from the horse's mouth:
"...I would, ah, create a, um, a level of activity beforehand to drive the futures...it doesn't take much money...I would encourage anyone...to do it, because it's legal, and it, ah, it's a very quick way to make money, and very satisfying. By the way, no-one else in the world would ever admit that, but I don't really care...I'm [just] not going to say it on TV...
"Now, you can't foment, that's a violation of uh...you can't create yourself an impression that a stock's down...but you do it anyway because the SEC doesn't understand it...that's the only sense I'd say it's illegal...
"Yeah, Apple's very important to spread the rumour that, um, that, both Verizon and AT+T have decided they don't like the phone...it's a very easy one to do because also you want to spread the rumour that it's not going to be ready for Macworld...and this is very easy because the people who write about Apple want that story...and you can claim that its credible because you spoke to someone at Apple, and Apple is not going to comment..."