The Ultimate Pump And Dump? Wins Finance Up $100 Per Share

Wins Finance Holdings Inc WINS shares jumped more than $100 in early Thursday trading without any major news from the company. The massive 35 percent move is a continuation of a huge tear the stock has been on in the past several months.

Wins was trading below $30 per share as recently as early November. Less than three months later, it's now trading above $380. The thinly-traded company is an investment and asset management company and lender in Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province and Beijing, China.

The big run-up in Wins shares likely isn’t the result of a short squeeze. According to shortsqueeze.com, there are currently only about 69,000 shares held short. However, Wins’ minuscule float of only about 733,000 means it’s unlikely that there are many shares available for traders to short the huge move.

If traders somehow were able to short Wins, the stock’s low float would make it a dangerous position to take. Heavily-shorted, low-float stocks have endured some huge swings in recent months. Most notably, DryShips Inc. DRYS traded from under $4 to above $100 and back down below $3 within a matter of days back in November.

It's possible that the huge run-up in Wins' stock has been the result of a pump-and-dump campaign on the part of management. One Seeking Alpha poster has accused management of fraud, claiming that the stock now trades at 16.9x "likely overstated book value."