SEC Cracks Down On No Good Very Bad Short Sellers

The Journal reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission has issued new rules aimed at curbing "a certain type of short-selling." Starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Thursday, short sellers and brokers must deliver securities borrowed for short sales on the trade settlement date, three days after the transaction, or face the wrath of Chris Cox. Additionally, the SEC closed the loophole that allowed market-makers to use naked shorting to smooth out temporary trading imbalances (the hole will officially be plugged five days after it is published in the Federal Register). Finally, Cox and Co. passed an anti-fraud rule aimed at short sellers who lie about their ability to deliver borrowed securities.

The full threshhold list of stocks on which the shorting restrictions apply can be found here.

Comments

1

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 10:47AM

I'm a big fan of short selling. But I respectfully disagree with you on this one.

To wit:

53. Is it possible.

If domestic hedge funds can be considered culprits in the bear run on BSC, why not any other entity with sub.stan.tially deeper pockets and an ideological commitment to the destruction of The Great Satan?

Why is everyone afraid to consider the likeliest explanation?

Allowing naked shorting in this environment is like giving free jet-pilot lessons to al quaeda.

2

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 10:48AM

I just have to say, when I saw the headline, I knew it was B. Levin, without even seeing the "byline."

I respectfully submit that you really should stick to fashion.

3

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 10:49AM

What about the Uptick Rule?

4

Posted by mj , Sep 17, 2008 10:50AM

This wont affect funds like Greenlight who take large well-researched directional postions so are able to plan to pre-borrow the stocks. It will hit daytrading desks esp at small bd's who play the vol all day. I'm find with that.

5

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 10:53AM

What about the Uptick Rule?

6

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 10:53AM

wait what? anyone know how this will effect options pricing with market makers unable to hedge delta?

7

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 10:53AM

What about the Uptick Rule?

8

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 10:55AM

I am also find with that.

9

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 10:56AM

I don't really comment on typos, but WTF does the last sentence say?

10

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 10:59AM

IT'S ABOUT TIME

11

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:00AM

Fuck Cox. What about the Uptick Rule?

12

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:02AM

9: does " ...short sellers who lie about... " work for you ?

13

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:04AM

This will hurt the options industry quite a lot, but in the long term will probably result in better ways to borrow stock (think Liquidnet, Quadriserve...)

14

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:07AM

So will the baddies strike while the iron is hot? Could MS be shorted into the ground before the rules are enacted?

15

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:13AM

none of these stocks were hard to borrow when they got plastered. This didn;t make a sh*ts difference when they tried it the first time. the Buy in on settlement rule is the only change. DumB

16

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:13AM

enough already! any possiblities that these ground-breaking, earth-shattering, upheavels on wall street be linked to something fun, like a Jeff Epstein massage, or an Eliot Spitzer manicure. We're all getting bummed out, and we need to celebrate the last days of summer. How about a change of content.

17

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:13AM

Cramer is talking about a list of stocks which accompanies this new rule. Does anyone know where I can find this list? TIA

18

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:14AM

@9 "threshold security" is a defined term

19

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:14AM

WTF is up with the TED spread.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=.TEDSP:IND

Is LIBOR too high? Or are 3-mo Bills too low? Or both?

20

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:16AM

@17: "@17: The full threshhold list of stocks on which the shorting restrictions apply can be found here (http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/Trader.aspx?id=RegSHOThreshold)."

21

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:16AM

Banks don't want to lend to each other and Fed has lost ability to control rates

22

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:18AM

I heard the 1-mo traded negative 1 basis point this morning. Is that even possible?!

Hahaha

23

Posted by Anal_yst , Sep 17, 2008 11:19AM

This is pretty stupid but I still can't for the life of me comprehend (besides the weak technology infrastructure in place still at many participants) why equities still settle t+3

besides that, why pummel MS? I haven't read their whole release, but it looked pretty decent, especially in the context of whats happening. Shorts are really gonna end up shooting themselves in the foot when theres no-one left to be counterparty to their trades, no PB's left, etc...

myopia here is ridiculous

24

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:22AM

MAYOOOOOO

25

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:23AM

MAYOOOOOO

26

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:23AM

MAYOOOOOO

27

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:24AM

MAYOOOOOO

28

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:24AM

GS just getting crushed.....

29

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:25AM

The uptick rule is absolutely untenable in this age of electronic trading. Cramer's an idiot.

Watch an active stock trade with a good Level II quote monitor. The number of trades per second goes north of 100 very often, with trades occurring on many different venues.

There's no way to actually implement a real uptick rule. The uptick rule is simply an anachronism that didn't even work well when stocks traded on the specialist system at the NYSE.

I also have to say that that the shareholders' selling of these stocks contributes *far more* downward pressure to stock prices than short seller sales.

30

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:26AM

GS Oct 50s at $5.

-retail

31

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:27AM

Massive money fund redemptions hitting the USD hard right now.

Everyone just wants to get into short-term bills. This could get very nasty.

32

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:28AM

@ 6 market makers can hedge delta ON SHARES THAT CAN BE BORROWED.

WTF is wrong with that?

33

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:30AM

@19 - BOTH...1) Libor is a bullsh!t # and 2)people are running from their money markets into treasuries

34

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:33AM

Lots of shiny happy people on www.nyse.com. would never know the stock market is tanking right now looking at this website.

35

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:34AM

MS trading at $17

36

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:40AM

When does SLM go?

40x through common, 30x through pref, lots of private student on its books to go bad and still at >2x book.

37

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:42AM

@36 SLM doesn't happen until after the election

38

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 11:53AM

the fucking horse has bolted

39

Posted by diablo , Sep 17, 2008 12:08PM

TED spread is correlated to financial markets turbulence. Hope this time it doesn't break the airplane into pieces...

And Cox is a moron with no cojones. Ban naked short selling for the entire market, why only "protect" some companies in a list? With no principles, he should stay out of this. Why Paulson gets a little bit of sympathy from me (and he owes me some), Cox is a nothing.

-- diablo

40

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 12:09PM

@ChristopherCox...

How about this for a new SEC rule...

You can't sell something you don't already own.

The Guy from Delaware

41

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 12:17PM

I first heard this on Fox Business around 9am ..called my pals and dumped positions. Fox had it right. Tough on shorts!!!

42

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 12:37PM

@40 - how about this you can't buy something unless you can pay in FULL!

43

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 1:17PM

@#42...

"You can't buy something unless you can pay in FULL."

I like it. Your #42 and my #40 will cover ALL the buys and sells.

diablo@#39...

I agree with you. Cox is a clown.

The Guy from Delaware

44

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 2:01PM

@ 39. you reason like someone who'se been on the street for a year, or who has never made a market, or read a book, or gets his information from bloomberg headlines.

45

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 2:02PM

@ 39 furthermore, do you even understand the difference between shorting borrowed shares and naked shorting?

46

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 2:03PM

And the SEC is far behind
Down in the swamp with the gators and flamingos
A long way from Liechtenstein
I'm a junk bond king playing Seminole Bingo

47

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 2:19PM

What's wrong, you scumbags?

NSS has always been illegal. The scum at the SEC just hasn't been enforcing the law.

What should be done, is to retrace the transactions of many of you scum ... and lock your corrupt asses up for a real long time,

48

Posted by diablo , Sep 17, 2008 2:34PM

@45

I had to go to the SEC press release to figure out exactly what Bess and the WSJ are really talking about. This is progress. But what took Cox so long? He's a moron. Evil too.

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2008/2008-204.htm

Short selling is OK, but naked short sales are not, no matter who does it, or to whom. I don't care if you disagree with that.

In my opinion there's still too much wiggle room in this order. But who cares about my opinion?

Clear now?

49

Posted by guest , Sep 17, 2008 3:02PM

@40 - how about this you can't buy something unless you can pay in FULL!

50

Posted by guest , Sep 18, 2008 8:29PM

this is not the list of the stocks to which the rules apply.. this threshold list has been in effect for five or six years

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