Word: coxes
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...investment banks. On July 15, the SEC issued an emergency order temporarily mandating that anyone who wants to short a stock "must borrow or arrange to borrow the security or otherwise have the security available to borrow in its inventory prior to effecting the short sale." As Cox explained in an op-ed, "Our emergency order is not a response to unbridled naked short selling in financial issues - so far, that has not occurred - but rather it is intended as a preventative step to help restore market confidence at a time when it is sorely needed...
...John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley, in a memo to employees. "You should know that the Management Committee and I are taking every step possible to stop this irresponsible action in the market. We have talked to Secretary [Hank] Paulson and the Treasury. We have talked to Chairman [Chris] Cox and the SEC." Cox is listening, and is reportedly proposing a temporary ban on short selling, subject to approval by the SEC's commissioners. If short sellers could be rounded up and roasted as heretics to the true bull market religion, there'd be a rush of people from Lehman...
Yesterday, SEC Commissioner Cox responded to the pressure. The SEC instituted a "Hard T+3 Close-Out Requirement," meaning that short sellers and their broker-dealers must deliver securities by the close of business on the settlement, three days after the sale. It's an answer to previous complaints about the prevalence of so-called "naked" short selling: that is, selling shares that you don't actually have in hand, and have not made arrangements to have. Naked shorting allows traders to potentially manipulate stocks. The SEC is also considering an emergency order forcing hedge funds, which employ short selling...
There's a furious argument over whether shorts hastened the demise of Lehman and AIG, cutting the off their oxygen when it was desperately needed. And some have laid the blame at the feet of SEC commissioner Cox. "Chris Cox is responsible for the largest destruction of wealth in U.S. history," hissed Mad Money maestro Jim Cramer on his CNBC show on Tuesday. "Because of Cox, the shorts won." (Republican nominee John McCain called Thursday for Cox to be fired - the same Cox some conservatives touted as a possible running mate earlier this year. President Bush said he fully supports...
Last year the SEC let the longstanding uptick rule expire, which stipulated that traders could short a stock only after it had moved up. Cox called the rule useless, because an uptick can be just a penny in the decimalized market. His view is supported by academics such as MIT's Paul Asquith, who has done extensive research on short sales. Asquith reviewed two years of data during which short trades were tracked by the SEC, and found that 30% of all trades are short sales. And outfits including Goldman and Morgan Stanley are no strangers to going short...