Short selling!!
Source = David Walker on eFinancial News
The US regulator's attempt to clamp down on short selling of shares in key US banks in July had the opposite effect, a report claimed today, a day after the Securities & Exchange Commission imposed new rules to curtail short selling activity. Short selling analyst Data Explorers has found in research that there was "over borrowing" of US banks' stock after the SEC placed new rules on short selling.
In a move that was widely seen as clamping down on short selling, the SEC
required that after July 21 hedge funds must actually locate the shares of 19 key financial institutions before they could borrow and proceed with short sales. It was concerned some hedge funds may claim they would deliver shares they had sold short to the buyer, but then fail to do so, constituting "abusive naked short selling" that would push share prices down simply by promising extra supply of shares for the market.
However research from Data Explorers found the rule to locate shares before selling themshort created an extra $22.1bn of demand from prime brokers to borrow shares of companies on the list, just in case their hedge funds clients wanted to borrow them in the future. For hedge funds to sell shares short, prime brokers borrow the shares from large investors, and lend them to the hedge fund. The fund sells the shares into the market in anticipation their price will fall so they can buy them back later more cheaply, return them to their broker and pocket the difference.
DataExplorers said: "One of the unintended consequences of the SEC's emergency rules was this surge in 'over borrowing' [that] put additional pressure upon the already strained balance sheets of prime brokers, many of whom are ironically on the SEC 19 list. In this circumstance the SEC unintentionally drove the cost of borrowing up for the very firms that the Fed and they were trying to help in the first place." However, despite DataExplorers stating that the SEC clamp down failed to dampen short
selling, the SEC yesterday extended its rules to apply to all listed firms, and not just the 19 financial companies, taking effect from today. SEC chairman Christopher Cox said short sellers and brokers that did not deliver shares sold
short by the settlement day could be banned from engaging in any further short sales for any customers.
The SEC also included options market makers within the rules, which Cox said "make it crystal clear that the SEC has zero tolerance for abusive naked short selling." Short sellers that lie to the market about their intention or ability to deliver stocks they have sold short could face jail, the SEC said.
The SEC is also considering forcing hedge funds managing more than $100m to disclose their short positions each day, and it might also issue subpoenas to "significant hedge funds and other institutional traders" to reveal their previous short sales.However, despite the clampdown, the SEC's UK counterpart, the Financial Services Authority, said it believed that the UK's own short selling rules announced in June were sufficient. Since June 20, hedge funds have had to disclose short positions of more than 0.25% of UK-listed banks conducting rights issues.
An FSA spokeswoman added that Alistair Darling, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, is running a working group, co-chaired by FSA chief executive Hector Sants, examining short selling and rights issues.
Previous rules have not stifled short selling. Almost half of all the short-term trading ideas in August sent to hedge funds and asset managers by Trade Ideas, a system established by four investment banks to disseminate investment ideas, were short positions. The 45% of ideas that were short in August compared to 43% in July 2008, which was the highest percentage previously. A survey of fund managers by Merrill Lynch this month found about a quarter of all hedge fund managers were putting more money on shares falling from current levels than they were on them rising, compared with just 6% who were doing so in August.
In a move that was widely seen as clamping down on short selling, the SEC
required that after July 21 hedge funds must actually locate the shares of 19 key financial institutions before they could borrow and proceed with short sales. It was concerned some hedge funds may claim they would deliver shares they had sold short to the buyer, but then fail to do so, constituting "abusive naked short selling" that would push share prices down simply by promising extra supply of shares for the market.
However research from Data Explorers found the rule to locate shares before selling themshort created an extra $22.1bn of demand from prime brokers to borrow shares of companies on the list, just in case their hedge funds clients wanted to borrow them in the future. For hedge funds to sell shares short, prime brokers borrow the shares from large investors, and lend them to the hedge fund. The fund sells the shares into the market in anticipation their price will fall so they can buy them back later more cheaply, return them to their broker and pocket the difference.
DataExplorers said: "One of the unintended consequences of the SEC's emergency rules was this surge in 'over borrowing' [that] put additional pressure upon the already strained balance sheets of prime brokers, many of whom are ironically on the SEC 19 list. In this circumstance the SEC unintentionally drove the cost of borrowing up for the very firms that the Fed and they were trying to help in the first place." However, despite DataExplorers stating that the SEC clamp down failed to dampen short
selling, the SEC yesterday extended its rules to apply to all listed firms, and not just the 19 financial companies, taking effect from today. SEC chairman Christopher Cox said short sellers and brokers that did not deliver shares sold
short by the settlement day could be banned from engaging in any further short sales for any customers.
The SEC also included options market makers within the rules, which Cox said "make it crystal clear that the SEC has zero tolerance for abusive naked short selling." Short sellers that lie to the market about their intention or ability to deliver stocks they have sold short could face jail, the SEC said.
The SEC is also considering forcing hedge funds managing more than $100m to disclose their short positions each day, and it might also issue subpoenas to "significant hedge funds and other institutional traders" to reveal their previous short sales.However, despite the clampdown, the SEC's UK counterpart, the Financial Services Authority, said it believed that the UK's own short selling rules announced in June were sufficient. Since June 20, hedge funds have had to disclose short positions of more than 0.25% of UK-listed banks conducting rights issues.
An FSA spokeswoman added that Alistair Darling, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, is running a working group, co-chaired by FSA chief executive Hector Sants, examining short selling and rights issues.
Previous rules have not stifled short selling. Almost half of all the short-term trading ideas in August sent to hedge funds and asset managers by Trade Ideas, a system established by four investment banks to disseminate investment ideas, were short positions. The 45% of ideas that were short in August compared to 43% in July 2008, which was the highest percentage previously. A survey of fund managers by Merrill Lynch this month found about a quarter of all hedge fund managers were putting more money on shares falling from current levels than they were on them rising, compared with just 6% who were doing so in August.
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