July 8, 2008
I have been grievously harmed by the naked short selling of CMKX (CMKM Diamonds, Inc.). I have been waiting for almost four years now to receive some compensation for the illegal and egregious manipulation of my shares. In all that time, I have only seen the SEC cast about for comments, after comments, after comments. When you have received 10 or 20 years worth of comments, then are you going to begin fixing our markets again? Or will there be a new way to drag your feet and further help the criminals who are robbing investors blind in broad daylight?
The following is from Bob O'Brien's blog. It sums up my feelings about the SEC's complete failure to even take minimal steps toward protecting investors.
If you had hope the SEC wasn't completely rigged by Wall Street, here is your official notice to abandon it...
You read this right, folks. After a year of comment, wherein it was established without a doubt that the market maker exemption not only was unlawful, as it harmed investors, and allowed options market speculators cheaper options at a direct cost to equity investors - but was also likely the number one manipulative mechanism used by predatory short sellers to create artificial supply of shares...the SEC decided that MORE COMMENT WAS NEEDED Why? Because after looking at the data, it appears that indeed, the market maker exemption is in fact a huge source of fails. Just as everyone who has ever invested in a company that a group of shorts who use the exemption to their advantage has attacked, could attest to.
What a farce.
Yep. Seems that, as if allowing one sort of participant to print stock out of thin air, as often as they like, solely in order for the participant's customers to have inexpensive options pricing in dangerously overshorted issues, WASN'T ENOUGH REASON TO SHUT THE EXEMPTION DOWN IMMEDIATELY. No, a long study was necessary, while every day countless investors were harmed and companies destroyed. The result, that indeed the companies and investors were being hosed by the options market makers, now goes out for comment yet an umpteenth time.
Imagine. You are the cops. You have film of youths raping the local women repeatedly. Instead of stopping them, you first parse what the terms mean - "rape, forcible, harm, etc." Then you put that out for comment. When it becomes clear that everyone pretty much agrees that rape is bad (other than the rapists), you conduct a study as to exactly how many women are being raped exactly how often, and then put that out for comment, several times, just to make sure that the rapists have adequate time to keep raping, and to defend their actions. "She was askin' for it..."
And everyone just nods along. They stall, they lie, they cheat, they steal, their reckless disregard for everything but a quick buck has brought the entire US financial system to the brink of the largest crisis since the 1929 crash...and how does the watchdog organization created out of the ashes of the 1929 crash treat Wall Street?
By stalling it's ability to destroy companies and print stock out of the back room, virtually indefinitely.
I'm absolutely sickened, but not surprised.
The SEC has absolutely no excuse now, except to stall. That's what they are doing. Allowing options market makers to naked short every day they allow it to continue.
No wonder the world views the US market as a cautionary tale, and capital is bailing faster than at any other period in its history. The system is patently rigged in favor of the big banks and their interests. The same big banks who just naked shorted Bear Stearns into the ground, and bought all those puts the few days before the massive raid on the stock.
If I don't seem to write many blogs any more, it's largely because I am super busy, but also because I have come to the inevitable conclusion that the system is more bent than a ride at 6 Flags. This is predicted by that conclusion, as is the theory that mysteriously, nobody will ever know who made gazillions on options days before the "emergency" sale to JPM, nor will any of the other blatant manipulations that are now an everyday part of the US market. My theory, that it is all hopelessly out of control and rigged, and that the powers that be are preparing to crash the system so that their misdeeds will pale in comparison to the coming financial Armageddon created by that crash, seems as though it is unfortunately likely to come to pass. Two years ago, I publicly wrote that I thought the only way out for the bad guys was to create a stinky so big, that the naked short selling fraud pales. That's what I believe is in process.
And the SEC is part of it. No other way to explain the foot dragging on any legislation or rules that would protect investors.
No other explanation.
This doesn't end well. Trust me on that.