I’m at an interesting position in my Crystallex (AMEX:KRY) trading. I’m thinking of making a $3 to $3.50 trade on the stock. I still own a core position, which is sitting tight until permit time.

Okay, I’ve setup the trade. Bought 1500 shares at $3.02 with a tight stop at $2.96. With a target of $3.40, I’m risking 6 cents a share with a chance to make 39 cents a share, or 6.5x my risk.

There has been an increase in the number comments I’m seeing at the Google Finance discussion group for KRY. Some folks will come in and talk about how Chavez is a communist and he’s going to take all the profits from the Las Cristinas mine. Then some folk come in and accuse them of being short. And they bicker about whether the stock will go up or down.

Here is a link to ShortSqueeze.com for the short interest in KRY. Looks like 2.86% of float, down 11.4%. Not sure what the time frame is on that 11% change.

So I see two things happening here. (1) Potential shorts are writing negative comments on boards. And (2) people who are potential longs are accusing any negative commentor of being short.

It’s (2) that really scares me. Less and less I’m seeing cogent defense of the stock and more short-bashing. “Well, you’re just short the stock. That’s why you’re saying that.” Is this a trend in sentiment I should take notice of. It seems to me that we’re seeing more casual investors long in this stock, which could mean that (a) the stock has become too popular and (b) these casual investors are going to run at the first hint of another big pullback.

What do you guys think? Have you ran into anything like this before?