Quote from Maverick74:
Dude, they are referring to option market makers. If a MM buys 1000 ATM calls, he needs to be able to sell 5k shares of stock to hedge his position. I don't understand what your beef is. You think any MM will make a market in call options if he can't hedge his position? Are you insane?
So what if an MM sell 1000s of puts, now he can short the stock to his heart's content, limited only by the number of puts he can sell. I understand a legitimate MM's need to hedge but where is the check on the MM who is using this exemption to effectively naked short the stock. If he never has to borrow (just keeps selling puts) how are longs ever going to be able to take delivery especially when the MM can put on as many shorts as he wants, even more than the actual float if he wants swamping the trading of legitimate shares.
Isn't this fraud? The MM is essentially selling worthless paper if he can't locate like everyone else (and this is the solution to the problem, force the MM to locate), I don't care if he gets a week to do it but he should have to locate or close his position, hedge or not. Why is any exemption even needed for the MM, it might add some temporary liquidity to the market but at what cost to the market's function as a valid pricing mechanism?