Hedge Funds Shorted Stocks at 1 cent a share

It may be hard to believe, but hedge funds shorted stocks at one cent a share. This is due to the fact that market makers need to made markets all the time and sometimes put in a bid of one cent.

Well the market makers got lucky and bought shares at a penny when hedge fund computer programs sold at the market during the market crash on May 6. A couple of stocks that supposedly traded for pennies include Accenture plc (ACN) and Proctor & Gamble (PG).

What Stock Dropped from 41.78 to 4 Cents Today

Today, Thursday, May 6, was a very volatile day, to say the least. Apple Inc. (AAPL) traded down to 199.25. Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) traded as low as 39.37. Do you know what stock opened at 41.78 dropped to 4 cents a share and recovered to 41.09, at least according to Yahoo (YHOO) Finance and several brokerage firms? It was Accenture plc (ACN), the management consulting company.

Check out the screen shot from Yahoo.

I personally think that it was a bad print, but you never know. The funny thing was, earlier today, I thought it showed that the stock traded at one penny today. Oh well, what's the difference, one cent, four cents. If it really traded there, more power to the trader who had the limit order at that price, and I feel sorry for the guy who sold at the market at that price.

No More Gatorade Endorsement for Tiger Woods

Pepsico (PEP) has decided to terminate the Gatorade endorsement of Tiger Woods, due to his marital issues. This is a follow-up to Pepsico's elimination of the Tiger Focus drink. And it is on top of the cancellation of the contracts with ATT (T) and Accenture (ACN). With all these contracts and connections going away, there isn't much left of the Tiger Woods Stock Index.

Tiger Woods Stock Index Update

Tiger Woods was the highest-paid professional athlete in 2008, having earning approximately $110 million. He is connected to a lot of publicly traded companies, acting as spokesperson for their products, record labels, and movie distributors. Back in February, I created the Tiger Woods Stock Index and thought it was time to do an update, especially considering that he is now in the center of controversy and popular news. Tracking the stocks he is connected with from January of 2009, the Tiger Woods Stock Index has underperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rising 25% for the year versus 29% for the Dow.

The stocks in his stock index portfolio include:

Nike (NKE) Woods has a multi-year endorsement deal with Nike Golf.

Accenture (ACN) Appears in Accenture commercials. It is also the title sponsor of Woods' first event of 2009, the Accenture Match Play Championship.

Electronic Arts (ERTS) 'Tiger Woods PGA Tour' series of video games.

LVMH Moet Hennesey (LVMUY.PK) TAG Heuer professional golf watch, "the first watch for golf professionals."

Fortune Brands (FO) The Titleist brand is owned by the Acushnet Company. Acushnet is owned by Fortune Brands.

General Mills (GIS) Eighth athlete to be a permanent representative of Wheaties.

Procter and Gamble (PG) 'Gillette Champions' marketing campaign.

Pepsico (PEP) Gatorade Tiger Woods Drink is marketed by the Quaker Oats Company, a division of PepsiCo.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) Endorsement with NetJets, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.

If you are wondering if the November 27, 2009 automobile accident had any effect on his stock index, you can see from the daily graph, there is no residual effect.

Assumptions:
The Tiger Woods Index is a price-weighted index, similar to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. LVMUY.PK was excluded from the analysis because it trades on the Pink Sheets. BRK-A was excluded because its high price would skew the index.

If you like celebrity stock indexes, you should check out the Heidi Klum Stock Index, the Eva Longoria Stock Index, the Angelina Jolie Stock Index, the Jessica Alba Stock Index, the Nicole Kidman Stock Index, the Freida Pinto Stock Index, and the Taylor Swift Stock Index.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

Photos courtesy of wikipedia. No celebrity endorsement expressed or implied.