Thanks to Stock777 for getting this to me. I like Barry's stuff, but he has hated us. He had to eat a lot of crow to print this, but he did it. Now, one of your own sees it my way - the right way. Gonna stand there? Gonna let them swamp us. Or are you going to do the right thing and support your own friggin' country. Hate me, but call your contacts and tell them what is going on.
http://www.rgemonitor.com/financema...ack_on_us_financials_details_of_sec_short_ban
Terror Attack on US Financials? Details of SEC Short Ban
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Delicious Digg Facebook reddit Technorati Barry Ritholtz | Sep 19, 2008
Last night, we discussed the absurdity of banning all short sales. The details of the SEC action have been released (see below). The specifics are a "temporary halt in short selling in 799 financial institutions" until October 2nd.
I have been trying to contextualize this, and I keep coming back to what seemed like a wild theory yesterday that seems a whole lot less wild today. During the day, I had an interesting phone conversation with Joe Besecker of Emerald Asset Management. (We used to do schtick together on Power Lunch, and made for an amusing financial comedy team).
But Joe is a good money manager, a great stock picker, and a thoughtful guy. He raised an intriguing issue: None of the many hedgies he knew were pressing their bets recently. The bear raids on the banks and brokers were NOT a case of piling on by US based hedge funds. And from what he was seeing and hearing about in terms of order flow, the vast majority of the financial short selling the past week or so were being done overseas. It appears that the lion's share of shorting was coming out of overseas bourses such as London and Dubai.It may not be a coincidence that the financial short selling ban is both here and in London.
Then there is another coincidence: The huge increase in shorting of the financials occurred on the anniversary of 9/11. And on top of that, the same institutions attacked on 9/11/01 were the ones suffering in recent days.
Joe asked the question: Is anyone investigating whether this is a case of financial terrorism? He wanted to know if someone was at least looking into this question (Joe is buds with Jim Cramer, and mentioned it to him, who then omitted to cite in his column that this was Joe's theory, not his own).
Anyway, its an interesting theory, one that seemed kinda out there -- until last night's emergency action. Nothing else really explains the insanity of banning short sales -- except for Joe Besecker's questions. I can think of 3 possibilities: 1) Extreme idiocy and incompetance -- not unthinkable fom the gang that couldn't shoot striaght in DC thse days; 2) Following the impetuous Fannie/Freddie rescue, the timing of this certainly has political overtones. We will see if it gets extended a month from October 2nd to November 5th. 3) Some other factor, possibly finacial terrorism.
http://www.rgemonitor.com/financema...ack_on_us_financials_details_of_sec_short_ban
Terror Attack on US Financials? Details of SEC Short Ban
PrintShare
Delicious Digg Facebook reddit Technorati Barry Ritholtz | Sep 19, 2008
Last night, we discussed the absurdity of banning all short sales. The details of the SEC action have been released (see below). The specifics are a "temporary halt in short selling in 799 financial institutions" until October 2nd.
I have been trying to contextualize this, and I keep coming back to what seemed like a wild theory yesterday that seems a whole lot less wild today. During the day, I had an interesting phone conversation with Joe Besecker of Emerald Asset Management. (We used to do schtick together on Power Lunch, and made for an amusing financial comedy team).
But Joe is a good money manager, a great stock picker, and a thoughtful guy. He raised an intriguing issue: None of the many hedgies he knew were pressing their bets recently. The bear raids on the banks and brokers were NOT a case of piling on by US based hedge funds. And from what he was seeing and hearing about in terms of order flow, the vast majority of the financial short selling the past week or so were being done overseas. It appears that the lion's share of shorting was coming out of overseas bourses such as London and Dubai.It may not be a coincidence that the financial short selling ban is both here and in London.
Then there is another coincidence: The huge increase in shorting of the financials occurred on the anniversary of 9/11. And on top of that, the same institutions attacked on 9/11/01 were the ones suffering in recent days.
Joe asked the question: Is anyone investigating whether this is a case of financial terrorism? He wanted to know if someone was at least looking into this question (Joe is buds with Jim Cramer, and mentioned it to him, who then omitted to cite in his column that this was Joe's theory, not his own).
Anyway, its an interesting theory, one that seemed kinda out there -- until last night's emergency action. Nothing else really explains the insanity of banning short sales -- except for Joe Besecker's questions. I can think of 3 possibilities: 1) Extreme idiocy and incompetance -- not unthinkable fom the gang that couldn't shoot striaght in DC thse days; 2) Following the impetuous Fannie/Freddie rescue, the timing of this certainly has political overtones. We will see if it gets extended a month from October 2nd to November 5th. 3) Some other factor, possibly finacial terrorism.
