Well, well, well, What do we have here? It looks like the boy(s) over at stocklemon.com crawled out from under thier rock today to attack another company. This time it is Medifast.

Here is an interesting tidbit. The AMEX Specialist who handles Medifast? Specialist #985

http://www.amex.com/?href=/equities/listCmp/EqLCCmpDesc.jsp?Product_Symbol=med

The AMEX Specialist who handles Home Solutions of America? Specialist #985

http://www.amex.com/?href=/equities/listCmp/EqLCCmpDesc.jsp?Product_Symbol=hom

The AMEX Specialist who handles Flight Safety Technologies? Specialist #985

http://www.amex.com/?href=/equities/listCmp/EqLCCmpDesc.jsp?Product_Symbol=flt


Stocklemon.com has only reported on 8 companies in the amex. 3 of them were handled by #985. 2 of them were handled by Specialist #896 (iig and ipa).

According to HOM's press release announcing the move from the AMEX over to the Nasdaq (http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060615/20060615005529.html?.v=1), thier specialist was Cohen Specialist LLC - I am assuming that they are specialist 985.

But wait a second here. From the AMEX Weekly bulletin, dated July 16, 2004 (http://www.amex.com/amextrader/tdrInfo/data/wklyBulletins/2004/07162004wkly.pdf), Mr. Thomas G. McNamara, of Cohen Specialist LLC held badge number 896-M. That is the specialist number that was handling IIG and IPA, when they were attacked by stocklemon on 2/24/2005 and 9/22/03.

From the AMEX website:

Specialist
A floor member of an exchange who accepts primary responsibility for making a fair and orderly market in a security at all times the exchange is open for business. In general, a specialist will make a two-sided market and provide limited liquidity to other market participants.

Perhaps this should be:

Specialist
A floor member of an exchange who accepts large amounts of money from hedge funds to ensure they are able to illegally drive down the price of a particular stock. In general, a specialist will make a one-sided market and provide limited liquidity market participants on the wrong side of the company he is attacking for personal profit

Here is some more on Cohen: (http://www.asensio.com/Reports/ReportView.aspx?ReportId=682&CompanyId=146&CompanyName=Report)

Disturbed? Let the AMEX know!!

Trade Complaints Amex Listings (including Amex-listed issues, options, and ETFs) - Call the Customer Inquiry Hotline at 212-306-1381 or e-mail tradecomplaints@nasd.com

P.S. This discovery was made by someone over at the yahoo forum. I can't take credit for this one, but I can tell everyone about it :)