So those greedy short-selling spivs are responsible for HBOS’s share price collapse? This chart would suggest otherwise.
From Data Explorers, showing the bank’s market cap on loan this week was actually less than 3 per cent - nowhere the July high. In comparison, Fannie & Freddie, before they were nationalised, were about 40 per cent on loan:
All of which conflicts of course, with what was said by the bank and the FSA when banning short-selling.
If bears were legitimately unloading what looked to be a risky investment - a bank that, by UK Chancellor Alistair Darling’s own admission, had a “problem” for several weeks, what’s next on the FSA’s horizon? A ban on selling, we guess.
