Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of insurer GEROVA Financial (NYSE: GFC) slipped as much as 11% in intraday trading after the company announced it had hired Kroll to investigate short-seller Dalrymple Financial.

So what: Suspense, intrigue, conspiracy ... in the stock market? It sure looks that way. GEROVA is an off-shore reinsurer that has come under fire for allegedly overvaluing the assets on its books and allegedly engaging in other fraudulent activity. Dalrymple Financial, an unknown research company and GEROVA short-seller, was behind a recent "research report" that made many bold claims against GEROVA. Today's announcement from GEROVA shows that the company isn't interested in taking any guff from some short-seller.

Now what: If only Dalrymple were GEROVA's only concern. The Dalrymple report was dated Jan. 10. Five days before that, Forbes writer Neil Weinberg took the company to task with similar allegations. And today's action in the stock suggests that the market isn't exactly convinced of GEROVA's innocence. Perhaps investors would prefer to see some sort of clarifying financial disclosure rather than shareholder money being spent to try to discredit a no-name short-seller? Just a thought.

Want to keep up to date on GEROVA Financial? Add it to your watchlist.