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’China gets shorty
In his latest move to support the development of China’s capital markets, Guo Shuqing, the newly installed head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, will oversee the creation of a new body to control facilitate short-selling.
Who’s not worrying about their shorts
It has been posited that short squeezes might be behind some of the rallies we’ve seen recently.
It would help to explain some of the macacque-level volatility and the markets’ willingness to rebound at any vaguely positive headline with Merkozy in it (Bruni-Sarko baby news,
Shorting bans aren’t much use
Nothing surprising here…
… move along please.
Quick and decisive action! On short-selling, again
In a coordinated move after Wednesday evening’s close, the European Securities and Markets Authority announced an extension of the short selling bans in place for selected financial stocks in France, Italy,
Short-selling fairies
Charts via short-selling information specialists Data Explorers, incorporating a gauge of securities lending in both the financials currently subject to the short-selling bans, and in their markets.
Compare and contrast:
Will the short-selling ban come up short?
After a day of speculation and disagreement ESMA on Thursday evening announced “harmonised regulatory action” to ban short-selling of financials in Spain, France, Belgium and Italy. As signs of weakness go,
Carnage with Consob
Earlier on Monday — Italy’s financial regulator hits the shorts:
Later on Monday:
(Oh and trading in Unicredit has already gone through one suspension.)
The high-yield exodus, charted
From Data Explorers – a chart to show how shares on loan in iShares’ iBoxx high-yield corporate bond ETF have basically trebled since June 10:
More coverage over here…
High-growth, high-stakes at Sino-Forest
It’s Tuesday — Sino-Forest results day.
The Chinese forestry firm already stands accused of being a “stratospheric” fraud by research and short-selling outfit Muddy Waters. Today Sino-Forest is set to offer a deeper look at its finances with Q1 results.
Haldane sips at market-based, simplified CoCo
To understand Andrew Haldane’s latest — all you have to do is glance at these charts.
One is regulatory bank capital, the other is a market-based signal of bank solvency:
See the change? In
Adventures in Portuguese bond shorts
Short-selling specialist DataExplorers has an interesting update on borrowing interest in Portuguese government bonds — which rallied on Wednesday on the back of a closely-watched and relatively successful auction of €1.25bn worth of debt.
Truthiness hurts, so go short
Pssst — want to know a juicy stock market rumour?
Are you sure?
Well, in that case you should think twice about buying, according to a Bloomberg article published on Tuesday:
Electronic news services,
Shorting a tarnished fund management group
Hmm.
Have you been wondering why the share price of Gartmore has remained firm in spite of all the recent dismal news?
Stuff like this, for example (from Reuters on Wednesday):
SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF 3.5 BLN STG OF ASSETS MANAGED BY GARTMORE FUND MANAGER ROGER GUY LIKELY TO BE REDEEMED – SENIOR GARTMORE SOURCE
One answer could lie in short covering (chart via Data Explorers):
Those ETF shorts
Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager — with $3,450bn under management according to figures released on Wednesday — puts out a regular quarterly review of the ETF industry.
And as usual, it presents some interesting factoids on all matters exchange-traded fund — be they product,
Defence of the realm, shorted
British prime minister David Cameron has just finished unveiling fiscal cuts to the country’s armed forces at pixel time on Tuesday.
Quick highlights — British troops will finally leave their Cold War German bases in 2020,
Unintended consequences of a prop desk’s extinction
FT Alphaville attended an introductory course to securities lending and shorting the other day.
And amongst the interesting snippets divulged — especially in light of Michael Lewis’ recent article on the mysterious disappearance of prop traders — was a chart,
Save our shorts, redux
Now here’s something you don’t see every day — calm evidence-based, consideration of the impact of short-selling (and thus, rules that prohibit short-selling, conversely) on the price and volatility of stocks.
Back to the future in shorting Spain
Back in May, at the peak of the European sovereign debt crisis, the Spanish stock market regulator announced it would ramp up rules on the disclosure of short positions on Spanish stocks from June onwards.
Athens is open for short-selling
Why are we showing you a chart of the Athens Stock Exchange?
And a bunch of Greek banks?
Because Wednesday, September 1, is the day the Hellenic Capital Market Commission’s ban
A stunned short-seller never forgets
For sure the 2008 financial crisis lingers on in the minds’ of long-only investors, but perhaps it’s surprising to hear the episode scarred the shorts too. And not just because they got banned, scapegoated or squeezed.
The FSA is adamant shorts will be outed
Not even death will get in the way of the FSA’s determination to disclose shorts.
The Financial Services Authority — otherwise known as the Britain’s premier zombie financial services regulator — has decided it definitely will be using its remaining powers to ferret out those scurvy short-sellers.
Shorting (and scheduling) the stress tests
DataExplorers has something useful for European stress test-watchers.
Ahead of the test results, the data specialist is providing a daily update on short interest in European banks. The first report was published on Monday — and it answers a few important questions:
Shuffling towards a Euro naked shorts ban
Just when you thought it was safe to go back naked and short into the water…
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have upped the ante on banning regulating short-selling in Europe.
‘It is forbidden to write or enter into currency derivatives…’
FT Alphaville’s resident germanophone Joseph Cotterill has tracked down the Finanzmärkte Diskussionspapier relating to Germany’s newest and most far-reaching draft law to ban all forms of naked short selling.
‘Berlin has decided to extend Leerverkaufsverbot’
Germany on Tuesday stepped up its campaign against short selling, and according to the Handelsblatt, is moving forward at speed (via Google Translate):
The federal government wants to ban naked short selling of shares,
If first you don’t succeed…
…try, try again.
Breaking on Bloomberg Tuesday lunchtime, another German attack on the wolfpack:
GERMANY PROPOSES NAKED SHORT SELLING BAN OF ALL GERMAN STOCKS
GERMANY PROPOSES BAN OF SOME EURO REGION
The shorts are innocent and bonds are not safe havens
Len Welter, Chief Technology Officer, at Data Explorers — which monitors short positions — is not convinced short positions had anything to do with driving the current equity sell-off.
According to him,
‘Germany’s restrictive measures are liable to hinder European growth’
EDHEC-Risk, a unit of the France-based business school, on Thursday released a withering criticism of Germany’s unilateral ban on naked short selling of eurozone debt.
We quote:
DHEC-Risk Institute considers that the unilateral measures taken by Chancellor Merkel on the sovereign debt markets,
Zwei linke Füße
That’s two left feet, for non-Germanophone readers.
In what’s probably an effort to justify German’s short selling ban, Chancellor Angela Merkel has been getting all apocalyptic about the euro on Wednesday morning.