Fake News: AMZN Takeover of AMC

Is Amazon (AMZN) taking over AMC (AMC)?

NO.

We saw this going around over the weekend:

And it looks like some people actually fell for this.

Reality check: anyone can throw up a website for $50 and try to pump a stock up with a fake news story.So how can you tell if a news story is real?

First, see if the stock actually moving. If it’s up or down a lot, the news might be real – especially if you see lots of options activity.

The word might is critical. Stocks can and will move big on fake news. A stock can go up or down 20% on a fake rumor. And traders will buy thousands of options contracts without seeing if the news is real or not.

What do you do next? See if the news being covered by major outlets. If Bloomberg, Reuters, and CNBC are not reporting something as big as an AMC takeover, odds are it’s fake news.

By just taking 30 seconds to check these two things, 95% of the time, you’ll be able to quickly screen out fake news.