Mia – Page 70 – Financial Treason & Crime

Jon Hill, 02 February 2021

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is calling on Robinhood to more thoroughly explain its decision last week to restrict trading in shares of GameStop and other companies amid a frenzy of retail investor activity, saying the move has raised questions about potential conflicts of interest facing the trading platform.

In a Tuesday letter to Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev, Warren described the trading restrictions as an “abrupt” rules change that not only risked hurting Robinhood’s retail investor customers but has also led to concerns about how the platform’s ties to hedge funds and other bigger Wall Street players may have influenced its decision-making. Continue reading “Article: Warren Seeks Answers From Robinhood Over Trading Limits”

02/02/202104/03/2021

Article: U.S. commodities regulator monitoring silver markets activity -acting chairman

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U.S. commodities regulator monitoring silver markets activity -acting chairman

Lisa Lambert, 02 February 2021

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) – The U.S. commodities regulator is closely monitoring recent activity in the silver markets and working with fellow regulators to address any potential from the moves, said its acting chairman, Rostin Behnam, in a statement released on Monday.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission “is communicating with fellow regulators, the exchanges, and stakeholders to address any potential threats to the integrity of the derivatives markets for silver, and remains vigilant in surveilling these markets for fraud and manipulation,” Behnam said.

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02/01/202104/03/2021

Article: The War On Wall Street: GameStop Sparks Revolution With Retail Investors

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The War On Wall Street: GameStop Sparks Revolution With Retail Investors

Anat Alon-Beck, 01 February 2021

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been glued to the financial news during the past week.

And, for the first time, both my husband and my son were actually interested in my work. It is mind-boggling.

My husband first told me these stories of people making exorbitant amounts of money trading stock options, and no, not people we know from the investment community. My son, who turned 11 this month, wanted to know what’s all the buzz in the news about his favorite store: GameStop GME +0.9%. Continue reading “Article: The War On Wall Street: GameStop Sparks Revolution With Retail Investors”

01/29/202103/08/2021

Article: GameStop short sellers are still not surrendering despite nearly $20 billion in losses this month

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GameStop short sellers are still not surrendering despite nearly $20 billion in losses this month

Yun Li, 29 January 2021

The astronomical rally in GameStop has imposed huge losses of nearly $20 billion for short sellers this month, but they are not budging.

Short-selling hedge funds have suffered a mark-to-market loss of $19.75 billion year to date in the brick-and-mortar video game retailer, including a nearly $8 billion loss on Friday as the stock kept ripping higher, according to data from S3 Partners.

Still, short sellers mostly are holding onto their bearish positions or they are being replaced by new hedge funds willing to bet against the stock. GameStop shares that have been borrowed and sold short have declined by just about 5 million over the last week, marking an 8% dip in the short interest, according to S3. Most of the short covering occurred on Thursday, when the stock fell for the first time in six days. Continue reading “Article: GameStop short sellers are still not surrendering despite nearly $20 billion in losses this month”

01/29/202104/17/2021

Article: Hedge Fund Says Banks’ Spoofing, Naked Shorting Cost It Big

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Hedge Fund Says Banks’ Spoofing, Naked Shorting Cost It Big

Jon Hill, 29 January 2021

A Bermuda-based hedge fund has accused several major financial institutions’ U.S. and Canadian securities arms of engaging in spoofing and naked short-selling, alleging in a new Manhattan federal court lawsuit that their tactics caused it to suffer losses in the tens of millions of dollars back in 2016.

In a complaint filed Thursday, Harrington Global Opportunity Fund Ltd. said U.S. and Canadian broker-dealer affiliates of Bank of America, TD Bank, UBS and several other large financial institutions drove down the stock price of the former Concordia International Corp. through illegal trading practices, forcing the hedge fund to sell its own shares in the pharmaceutical company at artificially low prices. Continue reading “Article: Hedge Fund Says Banks’ Spoofing, Naked Shorting Cost It Big”

01/29/202104/03/2021

Article: Elizabeth Warren Demands SEC Response To GameStop Frenzy After It Vows To Protect Retail Traders From ‘Abusive Or Manipulative’ Activity

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Elizabeth Warren Demands SEC Response To GameStop Frenzy After It Vows To Protect Retail Traders From ‘Abusive Or Manipulative’ Activity

Jonathan Ponciano, 29 January 2021

TOPLINE As calls heighten for regulators to investigate the retail trading frenzy–and resulting market madness–spurred by Reddit users this week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is urging the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates the stock market, to provide specific details about its investigatory steps–hours after the agency issued a vague statement saying it was still “closely monitoring” the recent market volatility. Continue reading “Article: Elizabeth Warren Demands SEC Response To GameStop Frenzy After It Vows To Protect Retail Traders From ‘Abusive Or Manipulative’ Activity”

01/29/202103/29/2021

Article: The Securities And Exchange Commission May Look Into Possible Market Manipulation Made By Reddit Day Traders Instead Of The Short-Selling Hedge Funds

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The Securities And Exchange Commission May Look Into Possible Market Manipulation Made By Reddit Day Traders Instead Of The Short-Selling Hedge Funds

Jack Kelly, 29 January 2021

It’s telling that regulators aren’t asking why high-end hedge funds were allowed to target vulnerable corporations, such as GameStop, in an alleged short-selling scheme to drive their victims into bankruptcy. As the stock price of their prey goes to nearly zero, the hedge fund honchos could earn multimillions—or billions of dollars–in profits off of the companies closing their doors and laying off thousands of employees into the worst job market in modern history.

Instead, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking into the young, goofy, fun-loving, scrappy and foul-mouthed novice investors on the r/wallstreetbets subreddit of Reddit. There is the feel of an institutional knee-jerk reaction to accept activities from established Wall Street professionals (no matter how odious it seems), while shining a harsh light on new—mostly naive—entrants into the financial community. Continue reading “Article: The Securities And Exchange Commission May Look Into Possible Market Manipulation Made By Reddit Day Traders Instead Of The Short-Selling Hedge Funds”

01/29/202103/24/2021

Article: Why did Interactive Brokers restrict trading in GameStop and other companies?

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Why did Interactive Brokers restrict trading in GameStop and other companies?

George Sweeney, 29 January 2021

What is happening to GameStop shares?
GameStop shares have been hitting the news quite a lot recently. At first, it was simply due to their astronomical rise in value. Then people started looking into why the price was rising so much. After all, GameStop is a video game retailer that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and downloadable games.

Because of all the bad luck surrounding the company, they were one of the most shorted companies in the market. Short selling is when traders buy a company’s shares and then sell them, believing that their price will go down before they buy them back for a profit.

Why are there restrictions?

The reasons for the restrictions vary. Interactive Brokers have said their restrictions were created in order to protect the market and make sure there was enough liquidity.

Another concern they have is that they’ll be left to pick up the bill if their customers end up with big losses. That is why they’re increasing the minimum requirements people must meet in order to borrow money to trade.

If these shares all spiral down at the same time, their fear is that many traders won’t be able to pay back the money they’re borrowing for trading.

Other platforms have said they are using restrictions to:

Stop their service becoming overloaded. Provide some breathing room to maintain everything and look after other customers. Prevent investors losing lots of money during unusual volatility. Make sure they meet any regulatory requirements in their country.

However, some argue that limiting people’s ability to trade shares like GameStop freely is effectively market manipulation because: Many traders accept the volatility risk. Brokers are potentially limiting trading because of their own liquidity issues. Investors are not being allowed full control over their investments

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01/29/202103/04/2021

Article: Billionaire Mets’ owner Steve Cohen and poster boy trader Dave Portnoy in fiery GameStop fight

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Billionaire Mets’ owner Steve Cohen and poster boy trader Dave Portnoy in fiery GameStop fight

Sarah Sharples, 29 January 2021

An online stoush has erupted between the billionaire owner of baseball team The Mets and a day-trading poster boy surrounding the GameStop stock controversy. The war of words started when day trader Dave Portnoy blasted Steve Cohen, the hedge fund billionaire and Mets owner, about restrictions on trading apps including Robinhood, which are used by amateur investors.

GameStop, a brick-and-mortar video retailer, has seen its stock skyrockets after Reddit renegades set out to prevent Wall Street “fat cats” from making huge profits from it. Continue reading “Article: Billionaire Mets’ owner Steve Cohen and poster boy trader Dave Portnoy in fiery GameStop fight”

01/28/202103/04/2021

Article: Steve Cohen’s enormous GameStop losses are his own fault

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Steve Cohen’s enormous GameStop losses are his own fault

DENNIS YOUNG, 28 January 2021

For Mets fans hoping for a hard reset under new owner Steve Cohen, one of the richest men ever to buy an American sports team, this offseason has been depressingly familiar.

The team hasn’t splurged on any major free agents or extended any of its own young talent. They had to fire the GM for being outed as a serial sexual harasser just a month after he was hired. And, most alarmingly for the Mets’ competitive fortunes, Cohen has quickly lost a ton of money on an ill-advised investment. Point72, the $19 billion hedge fund owned and operated by Steve Cohen, is down 15% this year, according to the New York Times. Continue reading “Article: Steve Cohen’s enormous GameStop losses are his own fault”

01/27/202103/08/2021

Article: Short Squeeze Costs Tesla Shorts $40 Billion in 2020

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Short Squeeze Costs Tesla Shorts $40 Billion in 2020

Danny Vena, 21 January 2021

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was one of the undisputed winners of 2020, with the stock gaining 743% over the course of the year. There were a number of factors that contributed to the electric car maker’s surging stock price, including five successive quarters of profits, induction into the S&P 500 Index, and a well-received stock split.

However, short sellers that bet against the stock lost a massive $40 billion in 2020, making it the single most unprofitable short of the year. Short sellers lost a combined $245 billion last year, with Tesla costing shorts more than the next nine stocks combined. Continue reading “Article: Short Squeeze Costs Tesla Shorts $40 Billion in 2020”

01/27/202103/29/2021

Article: What’s The Endgame For GameStop?

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What’s The Endgame For GameStop?

Taylor Tepper, 27 January 2021

There’s something very weird happening in shares of GameStop (GME).

A market frenzy has pushed the shares of the Grapevine, Texas-based video game retailer up more than 3,000% in just a few months—far, far outsripping the market as a whole. A once-dormant brick-and-mortar retailer with sagging sales, GameStop was worth $300 million in August 2019. Today it has a market cap of almost $20 billion.

Nobody knows what it’ll be worth tomorrow.

GameStop has not invented an addictive new gaming platform. GameStop has not rolled out an awe-inspiring online gaming delivery service. GameStop is a store at the mall. That doesn’t bode well for revenue, given that state governments have imposed rolling lockdowns and stay-at-home orders to limit the spread of Covid-19. And yet here we are. Continue reading “Article: What’s The Endgame For GameStop?”

01/27/202104/24/2021

Article: Something ‘Systemically Wrong’ With GameStop Options Trading, Says Massachusetts Securities Regulator

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Something ‘Systemically Wrong’ With GameStop Options Trading, Says Massachusetts Securities Regulator

Shivdeep Dhaliwal , 27 January 2021

There is something “systemically” wrong in the options trading of the stock of GameStop Corporation GME 0.1%, according to Massachusetts securities regulator, Barron’s reported Tuesday.

What Happened: The Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Galvin told Barron’s that he has kept an eye on the stock. “I’m concerned, because it suggests that there is something systemically wrong with the options trading on this stock.”

The publication is awaiting further clarification from Galvin on the specific nature of the problems in options trading. GameStop shares soared over 134% in regular and after-hours trading and have risen over 678% since 2021 began fueled by a Reddit forum. Continue reading “Article: Something ‘Systemically Wrong’ With GameStop Options Trading, Says Massachusetts Securities Regulator”

01/25/202103/08/2021

Article: GameStop short-sellers lost $1.6 billion in a single day as Reddit traders rebelled against them

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GameStop short-sellers lost $1.6 billion in a single day as Reddit traders rebelled against them

Ben Winck, 25 January 2021

Investors betting against GameStop and the army of bullish retail traders have already lost billions in 2021. Mark-to-market losses for GameStop shorts on a year-to-date basis reached $3.3 billion when trading closed on Friday, according to data from the financial-analytics firm S3 Partners. Losses totaled nearly $1.6 billion on Friday alone as shares rocketed 51% higher into the close.

GameStop stock has continued to climb as Reddit users and day traders have extended the unusual momentum trade into its third week. The company’s shares initially leaped on January 11 after it agreed with an activist investor to add three new directors to its board. The day’s gains drew in swaths of retail traders, including members of the popular WallStreetBets subreddit. Continue reading “Article: GameStop short-sellers lost $1.6 billion in a single day as Reddit traders rebelled against them”

01/25/202103/11/2021

Article: Top official warns of ‘disturbing’ amount of Russian money laundering in UK

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Top official warns of ‘disturbing’ amount of Russian money laundering in UK

Stefan Boscia, 25 January 2021

One of the UK’s top officials in monitoring economic crime has today warned about the “disturbing” prevalence of Russian money laundering in London, claiming up to half of all money laundered from the country is done through the UK.

Graeme Biggar, director general of the National Economic Crime Centre, told MPs today that it was “too easy to set up companies here” and that Russian “laundromats” were exploiting the UK’s corporate structure to launder billions of pounds. Continue reading “Article: Top official warns of ‘disturbing’ amount of Russian money laundering in UK”