The institutional scumballs who control this stock have demonstrated yet again that they occupy the top rung of Wall Street’s criminal hierarchy.  Like bank robber Willie Sutton, they have gone where the money is, manipulating the shares of the world’s largest company.  Yesterday, they set a bull trap on the opening bar, allowing them to short stock as high as $683 before pulling the plug to send AAPL plummeting to $662 — a 3% freefall.  This brazen shakedown was good for short-covering and creating fire-sale bargains. What is most impressive about it is that iPhone5’s ridiculously overhyped introduction is slated for tomorrow.  Apple is expected to sell 266 million phones in 2013 — each and every one of them egregiously overpriced and carrying airtight patent protection.  With the stock about to take out this morning’s 662 low, our hat is off to the thieves who have turned Apple’s daily ups and downs into a sleazy carnival game.  (And incidentally, our multi-sided option position hasn’t been hurt one bit by the stock’s histrionics.)