Category: Publications

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Letter: Research Capital Corporation to SEC on Proposed Amendments to Regulation SHO

Letter

Research Capital Corporation to SEC on Proposed Amendments to Regulation SHO

Geoffrey G. Whitlam, Vanessa M. Gardiner

6 September 2006

Research Capital Corporation (“RCC”) and Research Capital USA Inc. (“RECA”) have reviewed both the existing regulation and the proposed amendments and we have the following submission regarding the proposed changes to Regulation SHO and the problems created by naked short sales.

RCC is a Canadian Investment Dealer that is registered with the Investment Dealers Association of Canada (“IDA”). RCC is a full service brokerage firm that provides selfclearing for both RCC and RECA. RECA is a U.S. Broker Dealer registered with the NASD. Both organizations are headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

PDF (4 pages): Research Capital Corporation to SEC on Proposed Amendments to Regulation SHO

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Letter: National Coalition Against Naked Short Selling – Failing to Deliver Securities

Letter

National Coalition Against Naked Short Selling – Failing to Deliver Securities

NCANS

Letter to SEC, 5 September 2006

NCANS is a grassroots organization born of necessity. We are supported by and composed of investors on the receiving end of the negative consequences of naked short selling, long-term unsettled trades, and failed securities entitlements.

In addition to investors and participants, our members include corporate executives concerned about the deleterious effect these practices have on their companies, employees and investors, and their negative impact on corporate governance issues like shareholder votes.

Read full letter.

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Letter: Susanne Trimbath to SEC on Proposed Amendments to Regulation SHO

Letter

Susanne Trimbath to SEC on Proposed Amendments to Regulation SHO

Susanne Trimbath

STP Advisory Services, LLC, 29 August 2006

I am a Ph.D. economist doing research and consulting in finance and economics. I am formerly Director of Transfer Agent Services for Depository Trust Company in New York, and Operations Manager for Pacific Depository Trust Company and Pacific Securities Clearing Corporation in San Francisco. I also was Senior Advisor for KPMG on the USAID Capital Markets Project to design and implement trade clearing and settlement operations during privatization in Russia. Over the last three years I have been a paid advisor to companies, investors and law firms on the issues addressed by Regulation SHO. My comments will reflect my expertise in economic analysis of law and market efficiency, plus securities processing operations.

PDF (14 pages): Susanne Trimbath to SEC on Proposed Amendments to Regulation SHO

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Article: Naked Justice?

Article - Media, Publications

Naked Justice?

Liz Moyer, 29 August 2006

Louisiana State Attorney General Charles Foti is trying to force UBS, the Wall Street investment bank, to turn over vast quantities of information on its trading, stock lending and other activities related to shares of software firm Sedona.

The Louisiana Department of Justice filed documents in a state court Tuesday to compel UBS to hand over the information in ten days.

The state is probing naked short-selling, which is the practice of selling shares short without borrowing them. It is an issue that has already been raised in reference to Sedona Sedona. in an ongoing civil lawsuit against a number of brokers and hedge funds and in a Securities and Exchange Commission federal court case filed in April in New York against one brokerage and several individuals. Continue reading “Article: Naked Justice?”

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Web: Lies, Invention, Journalists, and the SEC

Web

Lies, Invention, Journalists, and the SEC

Bob O’Brien

Yahoo as cited by Sanity Check via Wayback, 21 August 2006

The subject matter, Mark Cuban’s ill-conceived stock bashing website that’s nothing more than a foil to slam his short positions, is the ostensible topic. I haven’t even bothered commenting on the site, as it’s pretty obvious to most upright bipeds what is being done there.

But this article is astounding – I literally thought that the guy who emailed me the link was making it up.

Access archived page.

 

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Web: NY Press Dead Silent on SEC Cover-Up, Except For Forbes’ Liz Moyer

Web

NY Press Dead Silent on SEC Cover-Up, Except For Forbes’ Liz Moyer

Bob O’Brien

Sanity Check, 21 August 2006

Maybe if we don’t talk about the SEC cover-up, it never happened?

That seems to be the way our venerated NY press corps is treating the FOIA data on Global Links – the topic of the last two blogs, and of a Forbes article on Friday.

This is playing out like the Dan Rather incident, but times ten. Bloggers and a few mainstream pubs get it and break the story, while the media circles its wagons and goes into denial mode.

Anyone surprised? Note that there is nothing from the WSJ, nothing from the NY Times, nothing from Barron’s, nothing from the NY Sun, nothing from TheStreet.com or Marketwatch, nothing from CNBC, nor Bloomberg, nor AP, nor Reuters…not even from the Post.

Access archived page.

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Memorandum: Fails to Deliver Pre- and Post-Regulation SHO

Memorandum

Fails to Deliver Pre- and Post-Regulation SHO

21 August 2006

Office of Economic Analysis

This memorandum provides summary data on fails to deliver through May 2006. It examines fails to deliver before and after the implementation of the Rule 203 of Regulation SHO. The data, as reported by NSCC, cover all stocks with aggregate fails to deliver of 10,000 shares or more.

PDF (6 pages): Fails to Deliver Pre- and Post-Regulation SHO

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Article: ‘Not MY Stock’: The Latest Way To Fight Shorts

Article - Media

‘Not MY Stock’: The Latest Way To Fight Shorts

Kara Scannell

The Wall Street Journal, 2 August 2006

Some executives are reaching for an odd tactic in an expanding battle against short sellers, who profit when share prices fall.

The executives — at smaller companies that often don’t trade on big exchanges — are pushing shareholders to lock away their physical stock certificates so the short sellers can’t get their hands on the shares.

Paywall Access to Full Article

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Article: Sell-out: Why hedge funds will destroy the world

Article - Media

Sell-out: Why hedge funds will destroy the world

Janet Bush

NewStatesman, 31 July 2006

Something ominous is going on in world finance – again. On 11 May, the US Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, raised rates and hinted that it might do so again. Wall Street wobbled but stock markets in the emerging economies fell through the floor. Since that day, Colombia’s stock market has slumped by 42 per cent; Turkey’s by 38 per cent; Pakistan and Egypt by 28 per cent; India by 25 per cent; the Czech Republic by 22 per cent.

Read full article.

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Article: Hedge Fund Hell

Article - Media

Hedge Fund Hell

Liz Moyer

Forbes cited by RGM Communications via Wayback, 28 July 2006

Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings filed a $5 billion lawsuit against SAC Capital, Rocker Partners and a number of other hedge funds, claiming they manipulated the insurance company’s stock, shearing its market cap by one-third.

Earlier this week, the regulatory arm of NYSE Group, fined Daiwa Securities America, Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, Credit Suisse Securities, and Citigroup Global Markets $1.25 million for violations of Regulation SHO–a rule put in place in January 2005 to clamp down on abuses–related to how they handle and monitor short-sale transactions by hedge funds and other clients.

Access archived page.

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Article: Lawsuits Accuse “Prime Brokers” of Securities Fraud

Article - Media

Lawsuits Accuse “Prime Brokers” of Securities Fraud

Wayne Jett

San Gabriel Valley Tribune cited by RGM Communications via Wayback, 19 July 2006

Two class-action lawsuits filed in Manhattan federal court in April allege fraud by the world’s largest “prime brokers” in securities lending practices.

Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Banc of America Securities, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities, UBS Financial and Bank of New York allegedly charge high fees to lend securities for short selling, but fail to deliver the securities sold short by hedge funds.

Access archived page.

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Memorandum: Short Sales on the New York Stock Exchange: Their Share of All Trades and the Types of Companies Most Likely to be Sold Short

Memorandum

Short Sales on the New York Stock Exchange: Their Share of All Trades and the Types of Companies Most Likely to be Sold Short

Robert J. Shapiro

Sonecon, July 2006

We analyzed the extent and focus of short sales of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) companies over a six-month period, February – July 2006.

    • More than one-fourth of all NYSE shares traded are sold short, or about 330 million shares out of 1.3 billion shares traded daily.

    • The proportion of shares traded that are sold short is inversely related to a company’s share price: Among NYSE companies selling for $20 or less per share, short sales account for about 30 percent of all shares traded, compared to about 23 percent of all shares traded in companies selling for $40 or more per share.

    • The proportion of shares traded that are sold short is inversely related to a company’s total market capitalization: Among NYSE companies with market caps of $3 billion or less, short sales account for more than 29 percent of all shares traded, compared to 23 percent of the shares traded in companies with market caps of over $10 billion.

    • The proportion of shares traded that are sold short varies by industry. Short sales account for nearly 29 percent of all shares traded in companies that produce discretionary consumer goods and services, including automobiles, appliances, textiles and apparel, hotels and restaurants – compared to less than 23 percent of all shares traded in companies in health care and consumer staples, including food, beverages, tobacco and household products.

PDF (3 pages): Short Sales on the New York Stock Exchange: Their Share of All Trades and the Types of Companies Most Likely to be Sold Short

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Notice: Speech by SEC Chairman Cox on Proposed Amendments to Regulation SHO

Notice

Speech by SEC Chairman Cox on Proposed Amendments to Regulation SHO

12 July 2006

The next item on our agenda is the serious problem of abusive naked short sales, which can be used as a tool to drive down a company’s stock price to the detriment of all of its investors. The Commission is particularly concerned about persistent failures to deliver in the market for some securities that may be due to loopholes in the Commission’s Regulation SHO, adopted just two years ago.

Read full transcript.

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Article: Covering Up Naked Shorts

Article - Media

Covering Up Naked Shorts

Harvey Pitt

Forbes, 11 July 2006

As crisis after crisis afflicts the business community and our capital markets, all too often the response is a form of reverse laissez faire. Business waits for government to tell it three things: if it has done something wrong, why it’s wrong and how to fix it. The ineluctable result is that, like Rick’s crooked police pal, Captain Renault, in the movie Casablanca, we’re “shocked, shocked to discover” we don’t like the government’s responses.

Read full article.

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