You are a free subscriber to Me and the Money Printer. To upgrade to paid and receive the daily Capital Wave Report - which features our Red-Green market signals, subscribe here. The $100 Million Typo That Nobody CaughtI swear, it's getting more and more insane and stupid in these markets...
Dear Fellow Traveler: I’ve been doing this for 30 years… and I’ve never seen this before… A biotech company just created the most expensive punctuation error in recent memory. ESSA Pharma (EPIX) is a failed cancer drug company. Its unwind was supposed to be simple. They failed their trials, gave up, and decided to return $80 million to shareholders. Cash dividend of $1.69 per share. What could go wrong? Everything, because someone couldn't count to one. This Is A Public Company?The company’s August 14 announcement stated that you could buy shares "through and including August 25 and receive the dividend.” It also said August 25 was the "ex-dividend date." For those keeping score at home, "ex-dividend" means "without dividend." You can't receive the dividend and not receive it on the same day. The dividend was paid on August 22. Common sense suggests that if you buy shares after the money has already been spent, you won't receive the money. However, the press release specifically stated "through and including August 25." So Monday… August 25, chaos erupted. The Most Expensive Game of TelephoneThe stock opened at 73 cents on Monday… Here’s the issue… It was either worth 25 cents (just the stub company) or $1.94 (the stub plus the $1.69 dividend). There were 178 million shares traded. That's $100 million changing hands based on different interpretations of a typo. Average daily volume before this? 250,000 shares. This one press release created 700 times the normal volume. Half the market thought they were buying $1.69 for 73 cents. Free money! The other half thought they were selling a worthless stub for triple its value. Also, free money! Both sides couldn't be right. But for five hours, nobody knew who was wrong. The company halted trading at 9:45 AM. It didn’t reopen until 4:30 PM… it took seven hours to figure out what they meant by their own press release. The answer? The buyers were wrong. No dividend. Just an expensive lesson in reading comprehension. The Perfect Crime Nobody CommittedSomeone at ESSA typed "through and including August 25" when they meant "through and including August 22." Three days. One typo. $100 million in confused trading. But nobody at the company caught it. Nobody at Nasdaq caught it. None of the lawyers, bankers, or advisors caught it. The entire financial machinery designed to prevent exactly this kind of mistake failed because nobody could count from 22 to 25. The buyers who thought they found free money? They just bought 25 cents for 73 cents. That's a 66% instant loss. The sellers who thought they were being clever? They accidentally won the lottery, they didn't know they were playing. ESSA's "clarification" came seven hours too late… "We inadvertently stated... The correct Due Bill Period was in fact August 19, 2025 through and including August 22, 2025." "Inadvertently." Beautiful. The lawsuits will be epic. Every buyer on Monday has a case… The press release said that they'd receive the dividend. Every seller has a windfall they never deserved. The lawyers will make more than both sides combined. This is what happens when financial markets meet human error. A company trying to do the simple thing… return cash to shareholders… created a $100 million game of musical chairs because someone couldn't proofread a date. The market's supposed to be efficient. Monday, for seven hours, it was perfectly efficient at being perfectly wrong. Half the market was right, half was wrong, and nobody knew which half they were in. That's not a market. That's a casino where the dealer forgot the rules. And we’re supposed to just trust this market while everyone’s asleep. I’ve seen a lot of incompetence recently in small companies that don’t understand the rules… but this is next level… Stay positive, Garrett Baldwin About Me and the Money Printer Me and the Money Printer is a daily publication covering the financial markets through three critical equations. We track liquidity (money in the financial system), momentum (where money is moving in the system), and insider buying (where Smart Money at companies is moving their money). Combining these elements with a deep understanding of central banking and how the global system works has allowed us to navigate financial cycles and boost our probability of success as investors and traders. This insight is based on roughly 17 years of intensive academic work at four universities, extensive collaboration with market experts, and the joy of trial and error in research. You can take a free look at our worldview and thesis right here. Disclaimer Nothing in this email should be considered personalized financial advice. While we may answer your general customer questions, we are not licensed under securities laws to guide your investment situation. Do not consider any communication between you and Florida Republic employees as financial advice. The communication in this letter is for information and educational purposes unless otherwise strictly worded as a recommendation. Model portfolios are tracked to showcase a variety of academic, fundamental, and technical tools, and insight is provided to help readers gain knowledge and experience. Readers should not trade if they cannot handle a loss and should not trade more than they can afford to lose. There are large amounts of risk in the equity markets. Consider consulting with a professional before making decisions with your money.
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