June 15, 2007
EDIT: To add one line
Want a comment on the Options Market Maker Exception?
Here you go:
NFI has an authorized issue of 37 million shares.
There are currently over 19 million legally reported short shares in NFI stock.
There are, as of this morning, 294,881 open PUT contracts in NFI representing a Market Maker's hedge of 29.4 million naked short shares outstanding which have been sold into the market. Up half a million shares from yesterday.
Gee. Let me see if I can add and subtract.
19 million short shares
+29.4 million Market Maker hedged naked short shares
-37 million authorized shares
Looks to me like there are 11.4 million more shares shorted and naked shorted than there are authorized shares in the company. By definition, that would mean that a long investor has less than a 50-50 chance of having real shares in his account.
EDIT: It also means that investors who buy NFI today have a real risk that near 80% of the shares they buy do not exist and never did.
We long investors receive unsolicited offers every day via overnight courier to loan out our IRA and 401-K shares to the prime brokers for the shorters use.
Is this the way you want the market to work? Is this math too hard for you to understand? If you are having a problem with this math, ask an elementary school child in the second grade for some help.
WHY CAN'T YOU PEOPLE SEE WHAT THE UNWASHED AMONG US CAN SEE EVERY DAY IN THE MARKETS?
When the Market Maker's hedged naked shares reach a point where they exceed the total shares in the company, will you then agree that the exception is being abused?
At the rate it is going, that figure will be here for NFI in about 6 more trading days.