Don't miss the Vodiagroup link he refers to. It's on the bottom of the page.
SEC Proposal May Cause New Short Squeeze
By Chidem Kurdas, New York Bureau Chief, and Christopher Faille, Financial Correspondent | Friday, January 12, 2007
NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com)âThe new short-selling rule proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission could give rise to a new kind of hedge fund strategy, and in the process create a nasty headache for market makers, according to a study by Josh Galper of Vodia Group LLC.
Short-selling rules that have been in place for the last two years, called Reg SHO, allow market makers to short stocks without having to borrow the underlying securityâin the common phrase, to short-sell "naked"âwhich is illegal for other players.
The rationale for this exemption is to allow market makers the necessary flexibility in the performance of their functions, but there have been objections to it, and the SEC recently proposed to limit naked shorting by market makers.
For example, in his comment letter to the SEC, the president of the North American Securities Administrators Association charged that market makers have incentives to facilitate non-market-making trades under the guise of market making.
Under the new rule, market makers would need to cover their shorts in securities that become hard to borrow after the trade, even if they were not hard to borrow when the short selling occurred. A market maker that is short a security that goes on the lists, published by exchanges, of the hardest-to-borrow stocks would have 13 days to cover the short.
Mr. Galper said if the proposal passesâhis guess is that it willâonly a small portion of securities will be affected but buyers and sellers will face novel conditions. He pointed out that some market participants may attempt to squeeze the price of the affected stocks or the rebate rate for borrowing them.
He argued that the proposal would advertise a new type of short squeeze to the market and impose a new type of financial risk on market makers.
In particular, some hedge funds may be able to track the affected stocks as they go on the hard-to-borrow list and buy them, knowing that market makers will need to cover the shorts in the specified time. This could become a strategy: corner the securities that market makers have short sold and drive up the price.
On the other hand, funds that are already short the securities in question will feel the effect of higher lending rates when demand goes up for borrowing the shares.
An example: New York Stock Exchange Group shares. They went on the hard-to-borrow list on Sept. 22 and rose 63% in the next two months. Under the proposal, this would have imposed significant additional costs on market makers or specialists that were shorting as part of their function to buy and sell the stock.
In a related development, the SEC also proposes to abolish the general "grandfather clause" of Reg SHO, increasing close-out pressures on all market participants, including hedge funds and market makers.
The new rule would force participants, within 35 days of the regulation going into effect, to close out short trades where the stock has not been delivered on time. This would create huge short-term volatility in the affected names, Mr. Galper warned.
CKurdas@HedgeWorld.com
CFaille@HedgeWorld.com
http://vodiagroup.com/site/news.php