Ospraie was a $1 billion + hedge fund that was forced to liquidate
following heavy losses. Relevance? They are MAA's largest shareholder,
by far. They *currently* control over 9% of shares outstanding
(compared with the next largest holder, Credit Suisse Asset
Management, at 2.3%), and that is after selling more than 30% of their
stake. In December 07 they had 27,362,000 shares; in June this had
dropped to 17,921,600. They haven't divulged current selling, but if
you look at the charts, you can see the substantial volume spikes at
fire sale prices, and it is Ospraie being forced to kill off its Mag
investing. Also, other hedge funds have taken notice of Ospraie's
liquidatiion of all its positions, and have consequently taken shorts
in many of them. All in all, while the fundamentals are suffering with
the weak credit condition, the recent downard pressure should be
attributed in part to Ospraie's forced selling.

maa at about $0.76