Just got a letter from my broker 1 hour ago (not gonna advertise its name, but big enough) - it speaks for itself:
"
Dear Client,
Short Selling Restrictions
Due to significant increases in the cost of borrowing stock in the underlying market, along with a lack of available shares to borrow, we have been forced to restrict short selling on the following US Shares:
Ticker Instrument
C (US) Citigroup
RF (US) Regions Financial
STI (US) Suntrust Banks
KEY (US) Keycorp
BAC (US) Bank of America
FITB (US) Fifth Third Bancorp
MS (US) Morgan Stanley
PNC (US) PNC Financial Services
WFC (US) Wells Fargo
GM (US) General Motors
F (US) Ford Motor Company
Clients are not allowed to open any new short positions or increase any short positions in these instruments. If you currently hold an open short position, you are not forced to close this and if you need to sell in order to close a long position your order will be accepted.
We will keep you updated with any changes to the situation.
"
Of course, no conspiracy, honestly there are just "lack of available shares " for BoFA, GM , etc... ha-ha-ha... they gonna fail next week even without short selling , I bet... Somebody is really stupid to protect share prices this way - restricting shortseller like shutting rooster before dawn..
"
Dear Client,
Short Selling Restrictions
Due to significant increases in the cost of borrowing stock in the underlying market, along with a lack of available shares to borrow, we have been forced to restrict short selling on the following US Shares:
Ticker Instrument
C (US) Citigroup
RF (US) Regions Financial
STI (US) Suntrust Banks
KEY (US) Keycorp
BAC (US) Bank of America
FITB (US) Fifth Third Bancorp
MS (US) Morgan Stanley
PNC (US) PNC Financial Services
WFC (US) Wells Fargo
GM (US) General Motors
F (US) Ford Motor Company
Clients are not allowed to open any new short positions or increase any short positions in these instruments. If you currently hold an open short position, you are not forced to close this and if you need to sell in order to close a long position your order will be accepted.
We will keep you updated with any changes to the situation.
"
Of course, no conspiracy, honestly there are just "lack of available shares " for BoFA, GM , etc... ha-ha-ha... they gonna fail next week even without short selling , I bet... Somebody is really stupid to protect share prices this way - restricting shortseller like shutting rooster before dawn..
..