SEC Moves to Curb Short-Selling

[riskman]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121614248005255151.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news

and the sharks will find a way to screw the rest of the planet.


"Charles M. Jones, a finance professor at New York's Columbia University, says there are numerous ways to evade restrictions on short selling. Traders are free to short U.S. stocks in overseas markets, unhindered by U.S. securities rules.
New York hedge-fund manager Whitney Tilson called the proposals a "desperation move" that could end up silencing investors who are among the first to point out problems at troubled companies.

"What do I think is really going on here?" he asked. "I think that regulators are very, very concerned about the collapse of the stocks of major U.S. financial institutions and are grasping at straws as to what to do about it." Mr. Tilson's hedge fund has had short positions on banks and brokerage firms, including Lehman, Washington Mutual Inc. and Wachovia Corp., as well as big bond insurers"

[cmoore]

Longtime Market Reform Advocate Issues Statement on SEC's Proposed New Fannie/Freddie Regs

Overstock.com Wonders When The Rule of Law Will Be Extended to All Companies instead of the SEC's Apartheid Solution SALT LAKE CITY, July 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today, in response to news that the SEC will institute an emergency order to curtail naked short selling of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock by requiring traders to pre-borrow the stock, Overstock.com chairman and CEO and a longtime advocate for anti-naked short selling reform, Patrick Byrne issued the following statement:

I wholeheartedly celebrate Christopher Cox's decision to enforce the rule of law as it regards trading in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock. It looks like the SEC may finally be getting the joke. For years, members of Congress, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, academics, Overstock and other companies have been calling for a pre-borrow to stop the manipulative trading of abusive naked short sellers. What I don't understand is why the SEC is extending the rule of law only to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We now have an apartheid capital market."The act of trading stocks without borrowing them first is a particularly egregious form of illegal market manipulation that has threatened our financial system for too long. I urge the SEC to extend the rule of law to the entire market, and not simply favored quasi-governmental corporations. Now that we are experiencing systemic failure, precisely as naked shorting activists predicted, we should ask the SEC: Why should two corporations alone deserve the protection for which hundreds of other firms have been unsuccessfully clamoring?" said Byrne.

[cmoore]

The Sec is finally getting involved in illegal short selling.

http://www.deepcapture.com/

[Valuist]

Naked shorting already was illegal. By coming out and saying they will enforce the rule, the SEC is admitting it hadn't been enforcing it.

[cmoore]

Naked shorting already was illegal. By coming out and saying they will enforce the rule, the SEC is admitting it hadn't been enforcing it.

SEC has denied naked shorting for years. Even some think they are involved.

[Valuist]

SEC has denied naked shorting for years. Even some think they are involved.

That wouldn't surprise me. But to come out like they did is tantamount to saying they've been asleep at the wheel. So now they'll enforce the rules for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the other financials? Its supposed to apply to ALL stocks.

[barn32]

It reminds me of the time that the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market. It probably would have worked except the "powers that be" changed the rules in the middle of the game and didn't allow anyone to sell--you could only buy. Well, you all know what happened next.

There is a great book that chronicles this event and much more called "God in the Pits (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=god+in+the+pits&x=0&y=0)." A good read.

[ddog]

barn,

give them a couple of quarters , I think that's where this market reg stuff is headed.

:confused:

[DJofSD]

I urge the SEC to extend the rule of law to the entire market, and not simply favored quasi-governmental corporations.

I agree 100%.

They should enforce REG SHO and the up-tick rule should be restored.

The lack of oversight and regulation brought us the S & L crisis. The lack of regulation and oversight brought us the current meltdown in the financial sector. The lack of oversight of FNM & FRE is going to result in the American tax payer shouldering the burden of yet another bail out.

Where's my pitchfork?

[lamboguy]

these whores are at it again. the public has been fleeced for enough money already, so now they decide to protect the culprits of the whole mess.
how can you just protect the financial institutions and not other company's like junior gold minor's. the same thing has happened to both. cute guys that run hedge funds have figured out how to steal from the system by scaring people into selling their shares. there are lots of large naked short position's in these things some over 25%, these guys are shorting stocks without borrowing the shares, and running the prices down. the laws have been on the books for years, but the sec has not enforced them. now they want to enforce them selectively on the banking sector that is gone anyway. these guys making money wrecking peoples lives are not cute, they took advantage of the idiots running the show.
the thing here is that our government that is supposed to protect, that have conned us into electing them, are in bed with these scoundrals.
mr pace said it all the other day, get rid of them all. i hate to admit that he is right, its not just george bush that is out to bust you, its all of them.