After an anonomous reporter falsely reported on iReport (report since removed) that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a serious heart attack, Apple's stock plunged over 10%, and the SEC has gotten involved. This just goes to show the shaky state the markets are in now, where an unsubstantiated report on an unaccredited reporting service is taken at such a value to impact the stocks of a major company. Furthermore, the involvement of the SEC hints that the feds are taking this seriously. Which they should. This goes to prove the very insecurity of our markets. If one man could (intentionally) make such a false report, there is no reason to believe that someone intent of causing actual harm could post a report that on the surface looked believable such that it could have the same, if not worse, repercussions. Thankfully though, this incident will hopefully put a dent into unsubstantiated citizen journalism. Now, there is nothing wrong with legitimate reporting by the people, so long as the reports are documented by credible sources, be they individuals, pictures (which with the increasing propagation of programs like Photoshop begin to leave themselves open to question), video, or cross-references with professional news services.

At the same time, however, the markets hopefully have learned a lesson from this; namely, not to take all news at face value. I hope that those people who were convinced to sell are feeling rather foolish after determining that what they based their choice on was a hoax. This whole business of trading as a result of political action or supposed corporate tragedies is, I think, getting the entire stock market away from the purpose it was conceived. Stocks should be bought and sold based upon the direction a business is headed, and the potential one sees for success in it. Too often today, people are investing simply because they can, and not really looking into what they are investing in or why they are making that investment. But, as I wrote about before, with the rise in the access of the market to more and more people due to the internet and technology, such occurences are bound to happen.