Herbalife or Herbadeath?....and Social Markets are Here to Stay!

Herbalife $HLF is at the center of a huge battle at the moment. Wall Street and the Hedge Funds are all engaged in the drama. Old media is having a field day (an always needed ratings bonanza). I am excited obviously because the social web has allowed so many more people to be engaged in the event.

It’s messy, it’s ugly and it’s also beautiful.

The financial markets and Wall Street are in a violent shake out. Forget worrying and arguing about when it started, focus on the future and for the moment, the speed at which the changes are accelerating.

Most people hate the players. That will never change. Money and greed…money and greed.

It’s not CNBC’s fault. There is no conspiracy theory. The game is the game. The tools are just different and the players names have changed.

Kidd Dynamite (a member of the Stocktwits blog network) has covered the Herbalife drama, beautifully. He’s writing about it, he’s sharing the important links and most interestingly for me, has a position he’s disclosed.

By following his Stocktwits stream and his blog, I have stayed on top of the event without a huge time suck.

Quick Summary:

1. Herbalife has moved from $45 to $25 and now back to $40 in the span of a month.

2. Bill Ackman ‘tipped’ the downward move by declaring it was going to ‘ZERO’.

3. The defense of Herbalife is now in full force.

As for tomorrow…TBD!

Why is this so interesting for the social web and Wall Street?

The players have never had a bigger arsenal of media tools to choose from to help ‘tip’ their positions.

They have never been smarter about using them.

These tools are ALWAYS ON. No one channel is enough to cover it. Ten CNBC’s wont matter. If the SEC quadrupled in size, they would be chasing the wrong people. We already let the bad guys get away.

The walls have come down on Wall Street and investment research. It’s pretty cool to watch and participate.