I agree with Bamako that short manipulation is a fact of life, however, this is not a reason to worry if you hold long and believe in the company.

These guys are operating on a short time scale. When they start driving down the price of a good company, smart money should take advantage and buy more. Eventually, as the drill results come out, the company will move up and the shorts will have to bail out and try someone else. Also, should the company get a buy out offer, the shorts will quickly run for cover and the price goes up.

So the positive spin is that the small "confident" guys can get some cheap shares that we couldn't otherwise get. The down drafts are painful but we can't worry if we believe in management and their plan.

However, this doesn't change my opinion that these guys need to be cleaned up ...