RE:VRX attacks actually targeting Ackman? or not?I think that is true to certain degree. If you looked at what happened with Ackman's portfolio yesterday, almost all of his holdings dropped significantly together. Either others are afraid of redemptions at Pershing Square or they hate Ackman.
As for Valeant in particular, I think another big reason for the drop is due to herd mentality. A lot of fund managers were already down in the second half of the year. All of sudden they have another big loser on their hand. They couldn't wait to get rid of it. Stop losses kick in on the retail side. There we had a Valeant situation. After seeing what happened with a nubmer of stocks, I am pretty sure 90% of market participants are trend followers. If Valeant goes up, we will see the same herd again. Fund managers hate to miss a winning stock as much as they hate having a losing one.