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Moving Naked Shorting Scam Series by broccaaa to Must Read directory
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The naked shorting scam revealed: lending of market maker privileges, the married put trade and why inflicting max pain will bleed them dry
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===========================================================================================================================================
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| Author | Source |
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| :-------------: |:-------------:|
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| [u/broccaaa](https://www.reddit.com/user/broccaaa/) | [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mgj0j1/the_naked_shorting_scam_revealed_lending_of/) |
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---
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[DD 📊](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/search?q=flair_name%3A%22DD%20%F0%9F%93%8A%22&restrict_sr=1)
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UPDATE-4: As soon as someone looked we found millions of naked shorts hidden deep in the call options. The activity is continuing and appears to ramp up as the next FTD cycle approaches. The weird call interest appears to clearly correlate with rising price action and 'closing' of reported FTD volumes. <https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mhv22h/the_si_is_fake_i_found_44000000_million_shorts/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share>
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UPDATE-3: I think I put too much emphasis on the max pain theory. Options from naked short trades expiring could hurt the short hedges but the real time bomb is in the FTDs piling up. Take a look at <https://iamnotafinancialadvisor.com/discord/DD/og/GMEv13.pdf> for the description and DD pdf
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UPDATE-2: A new post that investigates how the scam could work with updated rules in 2021 is now online: [The naked shorting scam update: selling nude like its 2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mh6lnz/the_naked_shorting_scam_update_selling_nude_like/)
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UPDATE: This post was removed because the paper was hosted on an unfortunate website. This has now been corrected. I also want to point out that the sources used here are old, some rules have since changed. But read this and think if another version of this scam might be possible in 2021. Would funds be tempted to use such a scam for easy profits? Would desperate players be willing to break the law to hide short behaviour? I'll leave the answer up to you.
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TLDR: Naked short selling privileges could be being illegally lent to short hedge funds by market makers. The married put trade and the even sneakier reverse conversion modification of the trade are described. These types of trade explain:
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- how short interest has been manipulated in official reporting numbers
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- how naked short selling has become so widespread
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- why borrow fees can still be so ridiculously low
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- that the vast majority of options (both puts and calls) might be due to naked short selling
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- how short shares are 'washed' and able to be dumped on the market even during SSR
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- why such a large number of way out of the money calls have been seen recently (actually part of a naked short trick, not long whales or gamma ramps)
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Looking at open put interest *naked shorts sold might be at least 150-200%* of float!
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With patience key options used for the manipulation will expire and the house of cards will collapse. Every time we hit max pain the shorts' pain increases. HODL!!
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🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
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*Note: this is not financial advice. I am not a cat. I read some papers and made some interpretations. Any number of these could be flawed and wrong. Make your own mind up.*
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Introduction
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One of the big questions surrounding GME has been about the reported short interest (SI) since Jan: *How is it possible that reported SI is so low when all other evidence suggests that SI is astronomical in GME?*
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Another question we all have is: *Why the fuck is the borrow rate so low when there are no shares available to borrow?!*
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Here I will try to answer these questions and how they relate to GME and the options market.
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While looking into naked short selling I discovered a few great resources that I will use here. The main one can be found here: [2007.10.09-J-Welborn-Married-Puts-and-Reverse-Conversions.pdf](https://wetransfer.com/downloads/d2c6318f7953ae019390eddfd65b213820210330221314/51f103)
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Here's a little bit of background from the paper:
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>"failures-to-deliver" (FTDs) are, in effect, phantom shares that circulate in the stock market as real shares; just as counterfeit currency destroys the value of a currency, phantom shares deflate the price of a company's shares. FTDs are generated using a variety of mechanisms. One is through abuse of the options market maker exception, which allows options market makers to short shares they have neither borrowed nor located in order to hedge. Abusive short sellers or hedge funds are illegally "renting" the options market maker exception to obtain phantom shares which can be sold into the market.
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These phantom shares have flooded the GME market. In January reported SI was 140% meaning without any doubt massive naked shorting was happening in GME. Now we see that institutions own anywhere from 130-200% of available float once again showing that naked shorting is rife. Finally if we look at retail ownership of GME it could easily be 100%+ of free float. Estimates are difficult but many other great DDs suggest huge retail ownership.
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Here is a quote from a [letter](https://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s72303/sonecon010504.txt) former Undersecretary of Commerce Robert Shapiro forwarded to the SEC based on his own research into naked short selling:
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>When the number of uncovered short sales in a stock exceeds its public float-or even the total number of shares issued or outstanding--the only plausible explanation is a concerted and illegal effort by short sellers to flood the marketplace with counterfeit or fictitious shares, in order to artificially drive down the stock's price and increase the value of the shorts. Massive naked short sales turn the equity market into a form of monopoly pricing for the firms that fall victim to such sales, in which the short seller sets the price at a level guaranteed to provide a quasi-monopoly return. These actions, in effect, destroy the integrity of the market system for firms targeted by naked short sellers and create a direct transfer of wealth from existing shareholders to the illegal short sellers. The firms targeted for such manipulation are generally smaller, younger public firms - the type of company which has generated many of the techno logical and organizational innovations that have contributed so much to the increases in business investment and productivity of recent years. As relatively small and young companies with much fewer shares in their public floats than their older and larger counterparts, their individual decline or destruction also generally attracts little public attention.
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Fuck these fraudulent fucks who sell phantom shares to put companies out of business. This time they have fucked with the wrong company because GME HAS A FUCKING SHIT-TON OF GLOBAL ATTENTION!
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The shorts have never been faced with a horde of artistic apes who only know how to HODL, buy the dip and 💎🙌 till moon.
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How a hedge fund can fake SI numbers and sell naked
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One of the perks of being a market maker (MM) is that you don't need to play by the normal rules of FTDs and selling short. In the process of making markets, which requires hedging positions, market makers theoretically may need to sell stock they temporarily do not have. For this reason, Regulation SHO allowed market makers, "...[an] exception from the uniform ''locate'' requirement, as Rule 203(b)(2)(iii), for short sales executed by market makers, as defined in Section 3(a)(38) of the Exchange Act, including specialists and options market makers, but *only in connection with bonafide market making activities*."
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Although only MMs should have the ability to sell stock naked *it is possible to loan their privileges' to other hedgefunds to play short*. This image is taken from the linked paper and gives an example of naked selling for Overstock shares using a *married put* trade:
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[Example of a married put for Overstock shares](https://preview.redd.it/lycx3rdas6q61.png?width=896&format=png&auto=webp&s=2043c8d6476829cc9aed81583e9402377412a563)
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This could be, *and almost certainly is*, being done with GME shares to hide SI and avoid massive borrowing fees.
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The option market maker obtains a market neutral position. Selling puts, alone, would create a net long position. Thus, in theory, the option market maker's naked short sale hedges against downward price moves. The option market maker receives a premium for the puts. In the example above, most of the $5 is the fee the market maker charges for "renting" his naked short sale privileges.
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After the married put is executed, the short seller then sells the "shares" into the market. Every time the short seller sells a share, his net short position increases due to the decreasing long position in the GME stock. The end result is that he is long puts on GME, which is equivalent to being short.
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So it is possible to short sell using MM privileges with an options trick and avoid massive borrowing fees for hard to borrow stock. THIS IS ILLEGAL AND CLEAR MANIPULATION OF THE MM RULES!
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In a 2003 SEC Interpretive Release, the Commission expressed concern about "*the manipulative sale of securities underlying a married put as part of a scheme to drive the market price down and later profit by purchasing the securities at a depressed price*." With increased scrutiny on married puts, anecdotal evidence suggests that they are being masked within market neutral trades known as reverse conversions.
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How to hide your illegal married put: the *reverse conversion***!**
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Here is another example of naked selling for Overstock shares, now using a reverse conversion trade:
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[Example of a reverse conversion version of the married put for Overstock shares](https://preview.redd.it/m7s0acsds6q61.png?width=899&format=png&auto=webp&s=2438f735745da62bd977b1ffa445d6ffdce4b062)
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The addition of the the call sales masks the trade and attempts to hide it's illegality. However, a key point from the paper states that:
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>Regulation SHO stocks with large, unsettled trades often exhibit a similar characteristic: *"short selling" hedge funds with significant put holdings in 13F filings*
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Now to take a look at Puts in GME using some other great ape DD.
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Options trading in GME
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We see a MASSIVE amount of PUTs sold for GME expiring on April 16: <https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mfw3u4/huge_number_of_puts_expiring_april_16_382k_open/>
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That is a possible 70% of hidden short interest that will expires in the options in a couple of weeks!!
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Many of the PUT trades are likely to be the hedge funds' short positions from married puts. If they can expire worthless the hedge funds lose their bet and the MMs are left with a massive shit-ton of short sold IOUs to deal with.
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If we look into all the put option interest for future months we might see the full scale of the married put naked shorting scam.
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[u/Cuttingwater_](https://www.reddit.com/u/Cuttingwater_/) took a look for me and found that if you tally up all puts <25$ (which just seem like write offs and would never be used) purchased for all available options dates, we are looking at > 150% of the float. That could be at least 150% of float sold naked! This number could be significantly higher as some options traded as part of the scam might have already expired.
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208% if you include all puts OTM
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In the case of the reverse conversion scam an extra call option is involved. For this version of the hidden naked short, the short hedgies are actually left with a way out of the money call. MAYBE THIS IS WHY WE SAW SUCH HIGH OPEN INTEREST FOR 800c CALLS IN RECENT WEEKS!!!
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Every week we end around max pain we inflict more damage on the shorts: <https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mejp0k/the_concept_of_max_pain_and_why_this_is_probably/>
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Potentially the vast majority of options (both puts and calls) in GME could have been created as part of a naked shorting privilege scam. Therefore the longer we inflict max pain on the GME options, and the more patiently we HODL the more chance we have to ensure these fraudulent fucks are left with nothing.
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All the recent DTCC filings suggest that they are covering their ass and looking into this bullshit before it explodes in their faces. Recent filings also mention that their aware of and ready to deal with option trading shenanigans by the MMs: <https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mecfwi/too_ape_didnt_read_sec_filings_part_two_fuck/>
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Conclusion
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GME short interest is likely hidden in the options using manipulative trades that illegally allow hedge funds to borrow market maker privileges and avoid paying large borrow fees. Every week that we allow options contracts to finish out of the money the illegal naked short trades become more unsustainable. DTCC filings show that they are scrambling to avoid holding the bag. A larger hand (or whale flipper?) seems to almost always set us down perfectly around the max pain each Friday to drain the shorts...
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A storm is brewing around GME. I'm just gonna keep HODLin' and buyin' that dip.
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🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
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​
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Edit 1: What if the Dark Pools are largely being used for the married put trades. To sell naked shares directly to the shorts along with their puts!!!
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Edit 2: [u/Cuttingwater_](https://www.reddit.com/u/Cuttingwater_/) helped look into the options and found this:
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>[@broccaaa](https://www.reddit.com/user/broccaaa) if you tally up all puts <25$ (which just seem like write offs and would never be used) purchased for all available options dates, we are looking at > 150% of the float\
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>\
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>208% if you include all puts OTM
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I will add this to the main text. Could suggest that at least 150% is naked short sold. Other options as part of the scam could've already expired meaning this is a lower bound.
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Edit 3: This also explains why SSR doesn't do much!! When MMs sell short to hedgies it 'washes' the short tag away. The hedges just have 'normal' phantom shares to dump at will!
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Edit 4: *This post does not point to any specific dates for a squeeze*. Options expiring hurts the shorts and drains their resources. The naked short IOUs still need to be paid but sit on the MM books. Any catalyst, gamestop related, DTCC related, or market related, could set things in motion.
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Edit 5: This analysis makes so much sense to me but it is based on papers from more than 10 years ago! I know some rules have changed since then but don't you think another version of this loophole will have been found by these greedy fucks when this method has been profitable for so long?
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Edit 6: The examples I give were for Overstock shares. The shorts fought for years to hide their naked fraudulent asses but they embarrassed themselves by filing evidence of their crimes by accident! <https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mexlpn/accidentally_released_and_incredibly_embarrassing/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share>
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@ -1,208 +0,0 @@
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The naked shorting scam update: selling nude like its 2021
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==========================================================
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| Author | Source |
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| :-------------: |:-------------:|
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| [u/broccaaa](https://www.reddit.com/user/broccaaa/) | [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mh6lnz/the_naked_shorting_scam_update_selling_nude_like/) |
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---
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[DD 📊](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/search?q=flair_name%3A%22DD%20%F0%9F%93%8A%22&restrict_sr=1)
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This post is an update to the one I posted yesterday on [r/GME](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/) and [r/Wallstreetbetsnew](https://www.reddit.com/r/Wallstreetbetsnew/). I hope to address some of the minor criticisms that were raised and use updated references for interested apes to look into.
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TLDR: This post updates the possibility of a naked shorting scam with massive hidden FTDs and short interest in 2021. By looking at SEC rules and academic papers I show that rule changes do not stop the potential abuses of naked short selling in a material way. Rather they slightly modify how it could be done and optimized. The changes also make the scheme less sustainable on the short side and over time pressure might "coil the spring" and lead to an [unprecedented FTD squeeze](https://iamnotafinancialadvisor.com/Current-DD/).
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With current rules:
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1. Synthetic shares can still be sold to hedge funds as part of a married put trade (or reverse conversion)
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2. The borrowed privileges now only relate to the "bona-fide" market makers exemption from locate requirements
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3. Rather than being able to flood the market with synthetics and let them build up indefinitely, once a security is on the threshold list market makers are forced to cover (after a certain time period)
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If mass naked shorting and married put trades were being carried out in GME this could explain:
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- the "BUG" bids as being part of "bone-fide" requirements to be "regularly and continuously placing quotations [..] on both the bid and ask side of the market"
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- short interest manipulation
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- how naked short selling has become so widespread
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- why borrow fees can still be so ridiculously low (low demand for located shares to borrow)
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- that the vast majority of options (both puts and calls) might be due to naked short selling
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- how short shares are 'washed' and able to be dumped on the market even during SSR
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- why such a large number of way out of the money calls have been seen recently (actually part of a naked short trick, not long whales or gamma ramps)
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- the vast number of trades in OTC / Dark Pools as part of married put trades
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🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
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*Note: this is not financial advice. I am not a cat. I read some papers and made some interpretations. Any number of these could be flawed and wrong. Make your own mind up.*
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Introduction
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The [post I wrote yesterday](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mgj0j1/the_naked_shorting_scam_revealed_lending_of/) was based on an economics paper looking at naked short practices that abused options market maker privileges. The paper was written in 2007 and took Overstock shares as an example of of a stock with massive short share fuckery. Here is a great [Rolling Stone article](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/accidentally-released-and-incredibly-embarrassing-documents-show-how-goldman-et-al-engaged-in-naked-short-selling-244035/) showing court documents confirming the illegal short seller activity in Overstock. Despite the clear similarities with GME in 2021certain SEC rules have changed since the paper was written.
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*Which short selling rules have changed and could a modified version of the scam be happening in 2021?*
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With some help from other apes in the comments and a little extra research I'd like to clarify this and provide some thoughts on what might be going on today.
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SEC rules on short selling and the changes made up until 2006 ( amendments to Regulation SHO under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 )
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Regulation SHO, which became fully effective on January 3, 2005, set forth a regulatory framework governing short sales. One of the goals of this was to target potentially abusive "naked" short selling practices in certain equity securities. Additional regulation was put in place to limit the selling of securities without first finding a valid share to borrow. The 2005 implementation failed miserably.
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A [fantastic letter](https://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s72303/sonecon010504.txt) was written in December 2003 by former Undersecretary of Commerce Robert Shapiro and forwarded to the SEC. In the letter Shapiro detailed findings from his own research and his doubts that the proposed changes in the SEC rules would have any material impact on the abusive practices:
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> In my judgment, the proposed regulations would not significantly reduce short sale abuses. To have a genuine impact on the efficiency and competitiveness of the equity markets, the regulations should provide much stronger disincentives for naked short sales. The integrity of the capital markets demands much stricter regulation than those currently proposed, much greater industry compliance than has occurred of late, and much tighter enforcement than has been seen thus far.
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The [SEC allowed for two exceptions in their ruling](https://www.sec.gov/rules/final/2008/34-58775.pdf), the second of which was highlighted as the source of abuse in my previous post:
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> As adopted in August 2004, Rule 203(b)(3) of Regulation SHO included two exceptions to the mandatory close-out requirement. The first was the "grandfather" provision, which excepted fails to deliver established prior to a security becoming a threshold security. *The second was the "options market maker exception," which excepted any fail to deliver in a threshold security resulting from short sales effected by a registered options market maker to establish or maintain a hedge on options positions that were created before the underlying security became a threshold security.*
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Note that Rule 203(b)(3) of Regulation SHO relates to the close out requirements when large FTDs pile up. The exception that was in place up until 2008 allowed option market makers to completely ignore the closing of their position even in the presence of huge FTDs!!
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The Commission noted that it would look for evidence for whether the options market maker exception for closing FTDs was operating significantly differently from their original expectations. Just a few years later the SEC realized their rules we're still being abused and started updating them again (also from [here](https://www.sec.gov/rules/final/2008/34-58775.pdf)):
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> To the extent that fails to deliver might be part of manipulative "naked" short selling, which could be used as a tool to drive down a company's stock price, such fails to deliver may undermine the confidence of investors. These investors, in turn, may be reluctant to commit capital to an issuer they believe to be subject to such manipulative conduct. In addition, issuers may believe that they have suffered unwarranted reputational damage due to investors' negative perceptions regarding fails to deliver in the issuer's security. Unwarranted reputational damage caused by fails to deliver might have an adverse impact on the security's price...
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>
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> ...With respect to the options market maker exception [...] we *reproposed amendments to eliminate the exception*. In addition, the Commission sought comment on two alternative proposals that would require options market maker fails to deliver to be closed out within specific time-frames...
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>
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> ...[to achieve] our goal of further reducing fails to deliver and addressing potentially abusive "naked" short selling, we believe that *we must eliminate Regulation SHO's options market maker exception*.
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So after making new rules, then amending those rules, then looking at how well they worked, they realized the initial problem was not fixed.
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Talk about taking your time to fix an issue that you acknowledge should be illegal and is highly detrimental to the market.
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Updated SEC rules for short selling in 2008
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A detailed and fairly easy to read description of the updated SEC rules in 2008 can be found [here](https://www.sec.gov/rules/final/2008/34-58775.pdf). It also has background info on previous rules.
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Prior to updating the rules on options market maker FTD exceptions the SEC sought comment letters from interested parties:
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> One commenter stated that it believes that the current options market maker exception "*harms investors and issuers, hinders the formation of capital, and is fatally flawed as written*" and that it should be eliminated. Another commenter stated that the options market maker exception "is a *well known tool of manipulators* *and must be removed to ensure a level playing field for public companies and their shareholders*." One commenter that supported the amendments noted that "*options market makers should factor the cost of borrowing stock and selling short into the price of the put options being sold*." Commenters also stated that 13 consecutive settlement days was more than sufficient to close out a fail to deliver relating to an options position.
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On the other side of the debate:
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> Commenters who opposed the proposed amendments generally criticized the impact of elimination on options market making risk, quote depths, spread widths, and market liquidity in threshold securities and securities that might become threshold securities. Among other things, they stated that the options market maker exception is integral to the options market maker's ability to make markets and manage risk and that, without the exception, making continuous markets would be very difficult, particularly in longer-dated options. One commenter suggested that "*withdrawing or greatly reducing the exception would cause varying losses of liquidity in over 20% of listed options and their underlying stocks*."
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Of course it would decrease liquidity if your ABILITY TO PRINT SYNTHETIC STOCKS AT WILL WERE REDUCED!!!
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The other comments basically say that market makers would have a hard time guaranteeing that they make guaranteed profits. There is a balance here as market making serves a purpose, but this topic is about the reduction of widespread strategic FTD short selling that endangers the market.
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After considering comments and data on FTDs the SEC stated that:
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> We believe that it is *appropriate to eliminate Regulation SHO's options market maker exception* because substantial levels of fails to deliver continue to persist in threshold securities and it appears that a significant number of these fails to deliver are as a result of the options market maker exception.
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|
||||
So the market maker exception for closing out FTDs was eliminated. Problem solved, right?
|
||||
|
||||
Rules changed, problem fixed. WRONG!
|
||||
|
||||
The elimination of the options market maker exception for closing out FTDs did help to reduce the number of FTDs in threshold securities (reference [here](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1386418112000171)). However market makers have additional privileges when it comes to naked short selling...
|
||||
|
||||
The "bona-fide" market making exception of locating shares before you sell them!!!
|
||||
|
||||
> Rule 203(b)(1) provides that "[a] broker or dealer may not accept a short sale order in an equity security from another person, or effect a short sale in an equity security for its own account, unless the broker or dealer has: (i) Borrowed the security, or entered into a bona-fide arrangement to borrow the security; or (ii) Reasonable grounds to believe that the security can be borrowed so that it can be delivered on the date delivery is due; and (iii) Documented compliance with this paragraph (b)(1)." This is known as the "locate" requirement. *Rule 203(b)(2)(iii) excepts market makers engaged in bona-fide market making activities from the locate requirement*.
|
||||
|
||||
So "bona-fide" market makers are exempt from locating any shares before selling them. They don't even need to bother pretending they have a "*reasonable grounds to believe that the security can be borrowed*". They want to sell shares they don't have, no problem! As long as they're "bona-fide".
|
||||
|
||||
This means that "bona-fide" market makers can short sell stock with complete exception as part of their business. The privilege they lost in 2008 simply means that they cannot continue to hang onto the FTDs indefinitely with no intention of covering any more.
|
||||
|
||||
Furthermore we continue to have evidence of:
|
||||
|
||||
- [Additional naked short selling when it suits funds around earnings calls (2016)](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2867383),
|
||||
|
||||
- [Continued short selling, fails-to-deliver, and abnormal returns (2016)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S092753981630055X)
|
||||
|
||||
Did you really think they would give up the free money scheme *that* easily??
|
||||
|
||||
What is a "bona-fide" market maker
|
||||
|
||||
Seems like people don't really know. The SEC tried to clarify ([page 30](https://www.sec.gov/rules/final/2008/34-58775.pdf)) things as follows:
|
||||
|
||||
> The term "market maker" includes any specialist permitted to act as a dealer, any dealer acting in the capacity of a block positioner, and any dealer who, with respect to a security, holds itself out (by entering quotations in an inter-dealer quotation system or otherwise) as being willing to buy and sell such security for its own account on a regular or continuous basis.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> Moreover, as the Commission has stated previously, a market maker engaged in bona-fide market making is a "broker-dealer that deals on a regular basis with other broker-dealers, actively buying and selling the subject security as *well as regularly and continuously placing quotations in a quotation medium on both the bid and ask side of the market*."
|
||||
|
||||
Well that wasn't very fucking helpful. So they act as a dealer and deal with other dealers while actively buying and selling a security. Looks like a pretty low bar to be allowed to print synthetic shares outside of the normal rules.
|
||||
|
||||
Even [experts in the field](https://www.mmlawus.com/newsitem/pdf/joic-04-2017-0019_8757744610889.pdf) have a hard time understanding the definition:
|
||||
|
||||
> While there is still a lot of room for additional SEC guidance on what constitutes bona-fide market making, the SEC has provided some details on the specific type of trading that would not fall within the Regulation SHO exceptions applying to bona-fide market making activities. However, there is still a large gap between the type of activity that most likely falls within the exception and the concrete examples analyzed by the SEC.
|
||||
|
||||
WHY ARE ALL THE RULES AND DEFINITIONS SO UNCLEAR?!??
|
||||
|
||||
It must be by design. Who would think "reasonable grounds to believe that the security can be borrowed" provides clear guidance? Why is a "bona-fide" market maker so hard to describe yet they have exceptional privileges?
|
||||
|
||||
Some speculation. Let's look at the quote:
|
||||
|
||||
> as well as *regularly and continuously placing quotations* in a quotation medium *on both the bid and ask side* of the market
|
||||
|
||||
COULD THIS BE PART OF THE BUGS WE ARE SEEING WHERE THE BONE-FIDE PLAYERS NEED TO REVEAL THEIR POSITIONS?!?!
|
||||
|
||||
The naked shorting scam updated for 2021
|
||||
|
||||
We've seen that in the years since the method I described [yesterday](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mgj0j1/the_naked_shorting_scam_revealed_lending_of/) was being used circa 2007 some rules have changed to reduce options market maker privileges. This is a summary of the changes:
|
||||
|
||||
- As of 2008 market maker exception for closing out FTDs was eliminated
|
||||
|
||||
- In 2021 "bona-fide" market makers are still exempt from locate requirements, allowing them to naked short sell their shares
|
||||
|
||||
How does this impact the scheme described previously?
|
||||
|
||||
1. Synthetic shares can still be sold to hedge funds as part of a married put trade (or reverse conversion)
|
||||
|
||||
2. The borrowed privileges now only relate to the "bona-fide" market makers exemption from locate requirements
|
||||
|
||||
3. Rather than being able to flood the market with synthetics and let them build up indefinitely, once a security is on the threshold list market makers are forced to cover
|
||||
|
||||
So the new rules do not change the potential scheme in any material way. There is now more risk on the market makers but if they can manage their FTDs they can keep trying to roll them over as before. Does this sound [familiar](https://iamnotafinancialadvisor.com/discord/DD/og/GMEv13.pdf)?
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/v5zkyg2x4dq61.png?width=1419&format=png&auto=webp&s=c0c48d441bb8cc46f497775a757dcb5e0c321c0c)
|
||||
|
||||
The FTD squeeze theory from https://iamnotafinancialadvisor.com/Current-DD/
|
||||
|
||||
If a market maker were to manage their FTD deliverables using the above method, or something similar, then in effect they have side stepped the new rules and can delay delivering shares as before.
|
||||
|
||||
The difference with GME is that they NEVER prepared for a situation with this much attention and so many hungry apes. I implore you to read the [full PDF thesis about the FTD squeeze](https://iamnotafinancialadvisor.com/discord/DD/og/GMEv13.pdf). Probably the best overview we have of GME and very much backs up how much rocket fuel is being pumped in as "the springs coil tighter".
|
||||
|
||||
Conclusion
|
||||
|
||||
Previous updates to SEC rules were shown to be insufficient at reducing unwarranted naked short selling. The rule updates in 2008 eliminated the exemption that allowed market makers to never close FTDs for securities with high FTDs. Today "bona-fide" market makers still have a key privilege that lets them sell synthetic shares without the locate requirement. Naked short selling.
|
||||
|
||||
These changes do not eliminate the potential for naked shorting schemes being run by "bona-fide" market makers or in coordination with short hedge funds using the married put options play. If these methods were being widely used it would help to explain:
|
||||
|
||||
- how short interest has been manipulated in official reporting numbers
|
||||
|
||||
- how naked short selling has become so widespread
|
||||
|
||||
- why borrow fees can still be so ridiculously low (low demand for shorts that have been located)
|
||||
|
||||
- that the vast majority of options (both puts and calls) might be due to naked short selling
|
||||
|
||||
- how short shares are 'washed' and able to be dumped on the market even during SSR
|
||||
|
||||
- why such a large number of way out of the money calls have been seen recently (actually part of a naked short trick, not long whales or gamma ramps)
|
||||
|
||||
- the vast number of trades in OTC / Dark Pools as part of married put trades
|
||||
|
||||
- the "BUG" bids as being part of "bone-fide" requirements to be "regularly and continuously placing quotations [..] on both the bid and ask side of the market"
|
||||
|
||||
This is one possible way in which the short interest is being hidden and the short shares being continuously sold, even when very hard to borrow on official channels. The rule changes do not prohibit such schemes, they would just need small modifications.
|
||||
|
||||
As the pressure builds it won't take much for the spring to sprung. Nothing has changed. I HODL!!
|
||||
|
||||
🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
|
||||
|
||||
Some references and further reading:
|
||||
|
||||
- [The 'Phantom Shares' Menace (2008)](https://web.archive.org/web/20190623164454/http://rgmcom.com/articles/PhantomShares.pdf)
|
||||
|
||||
- [What is a Regulation SHO bona-fide market maker? (2017)](https://web.archive.org/web/20190623164454/http://rgmcom.com/articles/PhantomShares.pdf)
|
||||
|
||||
- [(Naked) Short Selling Around Earnings Announcement (2016)](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2867383)
|
||||
|
||||
- [Three Essays on Naked Short Selling and Fails-to-Deliver (2013)](https://search.proquest.com/openview/b7759a0d7c621f67d82668197d99c379/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y)
|
||||
@ -1,326 +0,0 @@
|
||||
The naked shorting scam in numbers: AI detection of 140M hidden FTDs, up to 400M naked shorts in married puts and massive dark pool activity by Shitadel and the shorts
|
||||
=======================================================================================================================================================================
|
||||
|
||||
| Author | Source |
|
||||
| :-------------: |:-------------:|
|
||||
| [u/broccaaa](https://www.reddit.com/user/broccaaa/) | [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mvdgf5/the_naked_shorting_scam_in_numbers_ai_detection/) |
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[DD 👨🔬](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair_name%3A%22DD%20%F0%9F%91%A8%E2%80%8D%F0%9F%94%AC%22&restrict_sr=1)
|
||||
|
||||
This could be it. This could be the whole scam.
|
||||
|
||||
TLDR: HODL. Simple as that. HODL and the shorts have no way to escape. They just writhe around in desperation as FTDs escalate, their options expire and New DTCC rulings approach. To support this belief I:
|
||||
|
||||
- Built an AI to detect Deep ITM calls used to create naked shares. *140M naked shares* produced this way since Jan. Deep ITM call covering appears to be their *last resort of illegal desperation*. It's so easy to spot.
|
||||
|
||||
- Investigated married put naked shorting. At the Jan mini-squeeze put open interest went wild and aligns with *the creation of millions of naked shares with married put trades*. Put volumes appear to be sustained at higher levels to keep rolling over FTDs. *Up to 400M naked shares created in total*.
|
||||
|
||||
- Looked through all 13F filings for funds with large GME positions (long/short). We have a clear idea of who is on which side of this battle and what a true idiot short position looks like (hint: Melvin).
|
||||
|
||||
- Gathered all Dark Pool trading data from FINRA and show massive changes in trade behaviour since Jan. Huge increases in shares traded, but each trade is of few shares. And the key players? Known short funds. Supportive evidence for *naked short trades and suppression of retail buy pressure*.
|
||||
|
||||
I encourage you to read the post and take a look at the data so you can understand it for yourself. Correct me if I'm wrong somewhere. My suggestions? HODL with patience. Take a break from ticker watching. Take a walk outside. The shorts cannot escape 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
|
||||
|
||||
*Note: this is not financial advice. I am not a cat. I read gathered some data, made some figures and tried to understand them. Any number of my interpretations could be flawed and wrong. Do your own research, make your own mind up.*
|
||||
|
||||
Introduction
|
||||
|
||||
In this post I build an AI to detect suspicious Deep ITM Calls volumes used to hide FTDs. Take a look at historical options data to show recent fuckery in the options consistent with naked shorting tricks. And then compare these trends with Dark Pool trading volumes by known short funds.
|
||||
|
||||
The post will be broken down into three section:
|
||||
|
||||
1. An AI to detect Deep ITM calls used to hide FTDs
|
||||
|
||||
2. A recap of the major short funds and their recent positions
|
||||
|
||||
3. A recap of naked short selling and the married put
|
||||
|
||||
4. Options fuckery consistent with naked shorting and the married put
|
||||
|
||||
5. Dark Pool matters
|
||||
|
||||
6. Conclusions
|
||||
|
||||
The motivation for the work was to try and test a number of predictions I made in my [first post on the naked shorting scam and the married put trade](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mgj0j1/the_naked_shorting_scam_revealed_lending_of/).
|
||||
|
||||
These are the main ideas I wanted to test or at least find additional data to support or disprove them:
|
||||
|
||||
- short interest is manipulated through naked shorting
|
||||
|
||||
- the vast majority of options (both puts and calls) might be due to naked short selling
|
||||
|
||||
- short shares are 'washed' and able to be dumped on the market even during SSR
|
||||
|
||||
- the large number of way out of the money calls seen recently are actually part of a naked short trick
|
||||
|
||||
- increased trades in OTC / Dark Pools are due to naked shorting and price manipulation
|
||||
|
||||
I've gathered a lot of data to better understand these questions. I believed that some of the data is now conclusive. Other areas more supportive. But the big message is that shorts have no way out and never had a chance to cover 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
|
||||
|
||||
An AI to detect Deep ITM calls used to hide FTDs
|
||||
|
||||
When a share is sold without being owned or borrowed (located) it is sold naked, a "naked short". This can happen as part of normal market activity by market makers and I've described [this process and how it can be abused in a previous post](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mh6lnz/the_naked_shorting_scam_update_selling_nude_like/). When this occurs the SEC has clear guidelines on how long the seller has to find a share and deliver it to the buyer. If a share is not located in time it must be reported as a Fail to Deliver (FTD). Funds that have FTDs outstanding are required to resolve the position within a given timeframe and are restricted from sell short until then. I won't go into all the details on this but point you towards [the God Tier DD](https://iamnotafinancialadvisor.com/GME/) that covers this.
|
||||
|
||||
One way that a naked short seller can 'resolve' their FTDs without actually covering is through options fuckery. Deep in-the-money (ITM) calls can be bought and exercised immediately to acquire the shares and close the FTDs. [The SEC published a paper on this ILLEAGAL practice](https://www.sec.gov/about/offices/ocie/options-trading-risk-alert.pdf).
|
||||
|
||||
[Other great DD has been posted showing when Deep ITM volumes have been used to cover FTDs](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mhv22h/the_si_is_fake_i_found_44000000_million_shorts/).
|
||||
|
||||
I wanted to train a machine learning algorithm (often called an AI) that could automatically identify this illegal fuckery and point us towards what exactly has been going on with GME this last year and particularly since Jan 2021. I won't go into the full details here. Maybe I'll write a technical post if people are interested. Here are the basic details.
|
||||
|
||||
- End of day options data for all strike prices between Jan 1st 2020 and April 6th 2021 was collected
|
||||
|
||||
- I manually labelled more than 10,000 rows of data from mid-Jan to mid-Feb for suspicious volumes likely due to FTD hiding
|
||||
|
||||
- Labelled data was used to train different classifiers (AIs) reserving 30% of the data for testing
|
||||
|
||||
- The best classifier (BalancedBagging-Adaboost) has an accuracy score of 91%
|
||||
|
||||
- I used the model to identify all Deep ITM call options fuckery in the last year
|
||||
|
||||
THE AI FOUND EVIDENCE FOR MORE THEN 140 MILLION FTDs BEING HIDDEN SINCE JANUARY!!!
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/4g8izd9godu61.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=be0dc2f3937cb050458b23c7f46b79ffd10f0f3a)
|
||||
|
||||
AI detection of option volumes used to hide FTDs and FTD values since January.
|
||||
|
||||
The above figure shows all the suspicious Deep ITM call volumes since January as coloured bars. The colour scheme shows the different strike prices that were used for the trade. FTDs as % of float are drawn on top in the blue line.
|
||||
|
||||
As FTDs were spiking and the situation became more and more unsustainable for the shorts towards the end of Jan ILLEAGAL Deep ITM options purchasing was used to naked short and cover FTDs. Smaller increases in Deep ITM volumes also occurred just before FTD spikes at the end of Feb and mid-Feb.
|
||||
|
||||
On Jan 27th 25 MILLION shares were magically acquired using this trick. 140 MILLION in total since Jan 1st.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/30b6h4qopdu61.png?width=1800&format=png&auto=webp&s=ccafaf7bca99b134b09931bd5a60f11428c190ec)
|
||||
|
||||
Running total of suspicious call volumes since Jan 1st. 140 million as of April 6th.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/m0pd5pwwpdu61.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=1cefe0ef8b62b0ca853322c3e4c8b57205e5b641)
|
||||
|
||||
AI detection of option volumes used to hide FTDs and GME price since January.
|
||||
|
||||
Here we see that suspicious Deep ITM call volumes often precede big price increases. This suggests that this illegal trick is used as a last resort. It's so easy to see even by eye when looking at the options chains. When shorts get desperate they go to the deep calls.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/3tk1ye2jqdu61.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=d77b931096e9f42d111565bf550c5639070b6bca)
|
||||
|
||||
AI detection of option volumes used to hide FTDs and Short Interest (SI%) since January.
|
||||
|
||||
We see that Short Interest (SI%) decreased massively after all of the suspicious call option activity in late Jan. As well as getting the FTDs under control the suspicious Deep ITM call volumes might have been used to close legitimately borrowed shares to hide the true SI%.
|
||||
|
||||
With all the hype and attention the shorts knew they were completely fucked if they couldn't get everyone to believe it was over. But as we've seen after the lows of Feb this ride is far from over.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/8mfwrbx6tdu61.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=ebd2e26293f59af8d438169bead8b5f46a426d51)
|
||||
|
||||
AI detection of option volumes used to hide FTDs and Short Interest (SI%) since April 2020.
|
||||
|
||||
Finally, if we look back over the past year very few suspicious Deep ITM call volumes were occurring. This changed in January 2021 as the FTDs started to get out of control and a huge amount of hype followed the price rises. This again makes me believe that the suspicious Deep ITM call volumes are a sign of desperation from the shorts.
|
||||
|
||||
Speculation alert: Deep ITM calls are bought in times of desperation by the shorts when FTDs, price and/or SI% are getting out of control. At the end of Jan more than 100 million naked short shares were created this way to hide FTDs, hammer down price and hide SI%. Through Feb and up until April another 40 million naked short shares were created this way when the shorts began to lose control of their hidden positions.
|
||||
|
||||
A recap of the major short funds and their recent positions
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/l0cx2nq85eu61.jpg?width=850&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=18900ca805bc55c1372d3d2a39d098c4c6d4a803)
|
||||
|
||||
> Regulation SHO stocks with large, unsettled trades often exhibit a similar characteristic: *"short selling" hedge funds with significant put holdings in 13F filings*.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> MARRIED PUTS, REVERSE CONVERSIONS AND ABUSE OF THE OPTIONS MARKET MAKER EXCEPTION ON THE CHICAGO STOCK EXCHANGE
|
||||
>
|
||||
> John W Welborn, EconomistThe Haverford Group October 9, 2007
|
||||
|
||||
In my earlier post [The naked shorting scam revealed](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mgj0j1/the_naked_shorting_scam_revealed_lending_of/) one thing that struck me was coming across the above quote. So I've gone though all the latest 13F filings that contain GME on [whalewisdom.com](https://whalewisdom.com/) to get a clearer picture of the enemy. Note: the last 13F filings were made on December 31st 2020.
|
||||
|
||||
First a reminder of the known biggest GME shorting losers:
|
||||
|
||||
- [Melvin Capital suffered a 49% loss in the 1st-quarter](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/melvin-capital-gamestop-losses-49-first-quarter-decline-reddit-trading-2021-4-1030292729)
|
||||
|
||||
- [Hedge Fund Maplelane lost 45% on Gamestop](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-09/hedge-fund-maplelane-is-clawing-way-back-from-gamestop-losses)
|
||||
|
||||
So what does a massive short GME position look like in 13F filings?
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/cv9fzhxq6eu61.png?width=1810&format=png&auto=webp&s=833bc3e0760af8047ed58f5375aaaadac19951a0)
|
||||
|
||||
GME positions from 13F filings for the biggest known losers in GME shorting
|
||||
|
||||
That's a lot of puts without any GME shares or calls! *Melvin had 6 million shares in puts* and *Maplelane close to 2 million*. Depending on where you look on whalewisdom Maplelane either has no calls or about 500k shares in calls but never any real shares. For now let's assume Maplelane is all in on puts.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/rkj5le8t7eu61.png?width=1856&format=png&auto=webp&s=9b4fc0fcdc4c95204e5394846bef3eeedfa71b81)
|
||||
|
||||
Melvin hasn't held any GME shares since 2015.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/q71rz0hx7eu61.png?width=1845&format=png&auto=webp&s=75007fcc44dc48023aab5c5b4cd86c0301dda672)
|
||||
|
||||
Maplelane hasn't held any GME shares since 2014.
|
||||
|
||||
So big short losers have:
|
||||
|
||||
- No shares in GME
|
||||
|
||||
- Large put positions in 13F filings (either exclusively puts or the majority of their position)
|
||||
|
||||
What do other funds report for their GME positions?
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/506p312y8eu61.png?width=5350&format=png&auto=webp&s=98c7bad44cb276a92b8d9c87d7765e0327b72806)
|
||||
|
||||
All funds with at least 300k in either shares, calls or puts. Short positions are on the left and long positions on the right chart.
|
||||
|
||||
Here we see many of the known offenders. A bunch of short funds with majority puts and sometimes a smaller number of call options. Melvin takes the biggest idiot prize with 6 million shares in puts and nothing else. Here are the main offenders based on their end of 2020 filings:
|
||||
|
||||
- Melvin capital management lp
|
||||
|
||||
- Susquehanna international group llp
|
||||
|
||||
- Ubs group ag
|
||||
|
||||
- Group one trading l.p.
|
||||
|
||||
- Citadel advisors llc
|
||||
|
||||
- Hap trading llc
|
||||
|
||||
- Citigroup inc
|
||||
|
||||
- Wolverine trading llc
|
||||
|
||||
- Maplelane capital llc
|
||||
|
||||
- Jane street group llc
|
||||
|
||||
*Wolverine trading llc* had an almost identical position to *Maplelane capital llc* who reported massive losses. *Ubs group ag* is an interesting one with almost 4 million shares in puts and nothing else. Is UBS a final boss?? *Hap trading llc* & *Citigroup inc* each had almost 2 million shares in puts and not much else. *Group one trading l.p.*, *Shitadel advisors llc*, *Susquehanna international group llp* & *Jane street group llc* feature prominently too.
|
||||
|
||||
Let me remind you of the earlier quote:
|
||||
|
||||
> Regulation SHO stocks with large, unsettled trades often exhibit a similar characteristic: "short selling" hedge funds with significant put holdings in 13F filings.
|
||||
|
||||
Many of these funds exhibit this characteristic and around the end of December and early Jan SI% and FTDs were through the roof. This looks like fuckery.
|
||||
|
||||
Next 13F filing updates should arrive by May 17th. This will be big.
|
||||
|
||||
Speculation alert: Any fund holding predominantly or exclusively a put position is short and likely engaged in illegal married-put naked shorting. The biggest know idiots Melvin and Maplelane have positions that look similar to other large funds (Wolverine, UBS etc.) suggesting we may have a clearer idea of who is up against us. And facing bankruptcy.
|
||||
|
||||
A recap of naked short selling and the married put
|
||||
|
||||
The reason that large put positions in 13F filings is suspicious is because those puts are likely to be the by-product of naked shorting. For a detailed description of how options trading can be used to sell naked shares you can [take a look at this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mgj0j1/the_naked_shorting_scam_revealed_lending_of/) and [the follow-up post](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mh6lnz/the_naked_shorting_scam_update_selling_nude_like/). Here is a brief description:
|
||||
|
||||
> Being a 'bone-fide' market maker grants you special privileges. One big privilege is to sell shares without needing to fulfil the 'locate' requirement. In other words, 'bone-fide' market makers are allowed to naked short sell, but they must find the shares after a certain amount of time.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> What is a 'bone-fide' market maker? No one really know. The SEC did a shitty job defining it so many brokers can likely pretend they deserve the title.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> How can the 'bone-fide' market maker privileges be abused? Well...
|
||||
>
|
||||
> If a hedge-fund wants to short sell but no shares are available to borrow, or they're too expensive, the hedge-fund can go to their 'bone-fide' market maker friend and follow this simple *'married put'* recipe:
|
||||
>
|
||||
> 1 Buy puts from the market maker covering the number of desired shares.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> 2 Buy shares from the market maker at the same time. The 'bone-fide' market maker can sell the shares naked as he remains net neutral on the trade.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> 3 Make the 'bone-fide' market maker happy by paying a tasty premium for the puts.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> 4 Dump the bought shares on the market to suppress prices and remain net short on the puts!
|
||||
>
|
||||
> For an extra spicy recipe that is harder to detect add the following step before step 4:
|
||||
>
|
||||
> 3b Sell way way out of the money call options equal to the bought shares that you never expect to be worth anything (800c calls anyone?) to the 'bone-fide' market maker for a small premium. The trade now looks like an innocent [reverse conversion](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/reverseconversion.asp).
|
||||
|
||||
Options fuckery consistent with naked shorting and the married put
|
||||
|
||||
So, if massive naked short selling via the married put trade has been used to cover up FTDs and SI% since Jan we should see some anomalies in the options chain. Let's take a look.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/is3e6vn3heu61.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=3ced765a93d48245b0a8b9a6d2394280b42289e5)
|
||||
|
||||
Total open interest for puts & calls as well as FTDs & SI% since Jan 2020.
|
||||
|
||||
HOLY FUCK THATS A MASSIVE JUMP IN OPEN PUT INTEREST!! And it's been sustained since the end of Jan. for the last year open interest in puts and calls remained very similar. At the end of Jan put open interest increased by more than 300% and completely disconnected from call interest. Immediately after this change FTDs and SI% dropped massively.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/cdh81j9yheu61.png?width=3808&format=png&auto=webp&s=dc589f91495376dc303dbbff8cdec756fa62f712)
|
||||
|
||||
Cumulative open interest for puts & calls since Jan 2020.
|
||||
|
||||
If we look at the cumulative open interest over time we see the number of newly opened put contracts has remained steady throughout Feb and into early April. The rate at which these contracts are being bought is far greater than anything seen in 2020.
|
||||
|
||||
Speculation alert: The huge jump in open put interest could've provided up to 150 MILLION naked short shares to fight the January price spike and hide FTDs and SI%. When combined with certain brokers restricting retail buying, media FUD, January paper hands etc. their ploy appeared quite successful. Since pushing the price back to 40$ in Feb the constant and significant opening of new put contracts has been used to roll over the FTDs and do their best to keep their naked asses covered. Since Jan up to 400 MILLION naked short shares could've been used to hide FTDs and manipulate the price.
|
||||
|
||||
Dark Pool matters
|
||||
|
||||
Previously I speculated that Dark Pools could be used to facilitate the naked shorting trades. This hypothesis can be supported with data by looking at the [OTC data made available by FINRA](https://otctransparency.finra.org/otctransparency/OtcDownload).
|
||||
|
||||
Getting this data was a pain in the ass but I now have all Dark Pool volume data for GME since Nov 2020. This includes [Alternative Trading System (ATS)](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/alternative-trading-system.asp) and [Over-the-Counter (OTC)](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/otc.asp) volume data.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/ulkgw6e0qhu61.png?width=3076&format=png&auto=webp&s=6447fbe7e5e730f9d90d0525d7db539fff3f4b97)
|
||||
|
||||
Dark Pool trade data for OTC and ATS trade pool.
|
||||
|
||||
Dark Pool activity ramped up massively at the start of Jan, particularly in the OTC pool. Towards the end of Jan as prices spiked during the mini-squeeze the total number of trades more than quadrupled and the average trade size dropped to around 50 shares per trade, remaining there ever since.
|
||||
|
||||
Re-routing of order flow anyone? Short ladder attacks in small share batches anyone?
|
||||
|
||||
If OTC trading was being used to suppress retail buy pressure we'd probably expect to find the worst of all the brokers **Robinhood** involved in the trading pool.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/83iw1c15rhu61.png?width=3600&format=png&auto=webp&s=d7db9804c36d863a17be7d7bc8d0ce9f6a1c1586)
|
||||
|
||||
Total shares trades by firm for OTC and ATS pools since Jan. Note: using Log10 scale for comparison. Citadel actually traded 400M shares OTC!!!
|
||||
|
||||
Well what a surprise. Citadel trading 400M dark pool shares. Robinhood trading 2 million shares on OTC. The average trade size was ≈1 share which is fucking weird. Interactive Brokers only traded 9559 shares OTC but they made 9559 trades. Exactly 1 share per trade. Fucking weird.
|
||||
|
||||
Looking at the OTC market participant names, does anything look familiar? Oh yeah! Some of our short funds with massive puts in 13F filings also love to trade OTC!!
|
||||
|
||||
- CITADEL SECURITIES LLC
|
||||
|
||||
- JANE STREET CAPITAL, LLC
|
||||
|
||||
- UBS SECURITIES LLC
|
||||
|
||||
- WOLVERINE SECURITIES, LLC,
|
||||
|
||||
And the [worst offenders for Robinhood payment for order flow (PFOF)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/29/robinhood-citadel-gamestop-reddit/):
|
||||
|
||||
- CITADEL SECURITIES LLC
|
||||
|
||||
- VIRTU AMERICAS LLC
|
||||
|
||||
- G1 EXECUTION SERVICES, LLC
|
||||
|
||||
- JANE STREET CAPITAL, LLC
|
||||
|
||||
- TWO SIGMA SECURITIES, LLC
|
||||
|
||||
TWO SIGMA SECURITIES, LLC is an interesting one. As well as benefiting from PFOF they are also a known short. They don't show up in the 13F filings but they were [reported to take a big hit from short positions in Gamestop](https://www.ft.com/content/1ed2b0de-ea10-4a50-8f33-9f0a1cd38be9).
|
||||
|
||||
COMHAR CAPITAL MARKETS, LLC is a [UK investment firm](https://www.comharcapital.co.uk/). What are they doing trading 14 million GME shares OTC?!? I'm calling bullshit and suggesting this firm can be added to the short fund list.
|
||||
|
||||
COWEN AND COMPANY have 100k shares in puts from 13F but didn't show up in the earlier list as I set a minimum of 300k shares to be included. Another short hedge.
|
||||
|
||||
LEK SECURITIES CORPORATION don't have any obvious short positions in GME or news reports of losses. However they were [slapped by the SEC for large scale market manipulation in the recent past](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sec-obtains-final-judgments-against-200100044.html).
|
||||
|
||||
Speculation alert: OTC trades have seen massive volume and order size changes since early January. Many of the participants are known short funds. Changes in OTC trading align with evidence of manipulative naked short selling (Deep ITM calls and married-puts). OTC trading has been used to create millions of naked short shares and reroute retail orders to suppress buying pressure.
|
||||
|
||||
Conclusions
|
||||
|
||||
Hedgies are fucked. Just look at the amount of effort they've had to put into keeping a lid on this thing!!! *When they lose control of the FTDs they lose control of the price*. Millions of illegal naked short shares created in a desperate effort to make retail go away. But guess what??
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/zz5eu179biu61.gif?format=mp4&s=4b1aca79969f4d3653b39582fb94e9a3de4dfc8b)
|
||||
|
||||
Speculation alert: Here are my thoughts for what's happened with GME in 2021:
|
||||
|
||||
- FTDs and SI% were getting out of control in early Jan
|
||||
|
||||
- As prices increased and more hype came to GME the shorts got more and more desperate
|
||||
|
||||
- Dark Pool OTC volumes went through the roof and Deep ITM call volumes were used to create naked shares ahead of the end of Jan price spike
|
||||
|
||||
- When prices really started to move from Jan 25th - 29th more than 100 million shares were created with Deep ITM call and married-put naked shorting and used to hammer down price and hide SI%
|
||||
|
||||
- A coordinated blocking of buy orders on key retail brokers and media induced FUD helped the shorts knock down the price and scare off some of the FOMO paper hand gang.
|
||||
|
||||
- [Something happened to the short share borrow fees](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mma7eh/analysis_deep_dive_looking_at_historical_si_ftd/) that completely disconnect from normal pricing.
|
||||
|
||||
- From Feb onwards average trade size on OTC decreased to around 50 shares per trade. That's a 70%+ drop in trade size. Retail orders were funnelled through Dark Pools to control buying pressure and 'short ladder attacks' used to control price.
|
||||
|
||||
- ETFs were used to hide more and more FTDs from the apes. I have data on ETFs but its such a pain to analyse (70+ funds, all different GME allocations, rebalancing over time etc..).
|
||||
|
||||
- DFV doubled down. RC tweeted an ice-cream cone. Deep ITM calls increased. FTDs remerged and on Feb 25th prices started flying again.
|
||||
|
||||
- All this time FTDs and prices have been manipulated with tricky options trades. Up to 200 million naked short shares could've been made from Feb through to April 6th using married put trades.
|
||||
|
||||
- But the apes are still here. Millions of short fund options have expired. FTDs are shown to get uncontrollable over time. An [unprecedented FTD squeeze](https://iamnotafinancialadvisor.com/GME/) will come. New DTCC rules, a stronger SEC, GME annual meeting and share recall. So many catalysts. Shorts are fucked.
|
||||
|
||||
🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
|
||||
@ -1,194 +0,0 @@
|
||||
The naked shorting scam in numbers part deux: Up to date FTD, ETF, SI, Options & Dark Pool Data. GME is the shorted to shit unicorn that can never happen again.
|
||||
================================================================================================================================================================
|
||||
|
||||
| Author | Source |
|
||||
| :-------------: |:-------------:|
|
||||
| [u/broccaaa](https://www.reddit.com/user/broccaaa/) | [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/o14ccz/the_naked_shorting_scam_in_numbers_part_deux_up/) |
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
[DD 👨🔬](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/search?q=flair_name%3A%22DD%20%F0%9F%91%A8%E2%80%8D%F0%9F%94%AC%22&restrict_sr=1)
|
||||
|
||||
Introduction
|
||||
|
||||
Since my last major post a lot's happened with our favourite stonk. Top DD apes like [u/criand](https://www.reddit.com/u/criand/) and [u/HomeDepotHank69](https://www.reddit.com/u/HomeDepotHank69/) have dug into how the FTD cycle impacts price down the road. [u/RocketApes](https://www.reddit.com/u/RocketApes/) managed to build a model to predict GME price movements. And we saw another big price movement up to the edge of $350.
|
||||
|
||||
The purpose of this post is to update a lot of the figures I've shared previously while adding a few more observations. I'll give brief descriptions of what each figure is showing but I'll not go into deep speculation here. Instead I'll possibly work on a follow up theory post in the coming days but already make all the data in this post available to the community.
|
||||
|
||||
My previous posts went into a lot more speculation and can be referenced if you're interested in going deeper in a particular area:
|
||||
|
||||
1. [The naked shorting scam revealed: lending of market maker privileges, the married put trade and why inflicting max pain will bleed them dry](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mgj0j1/the_naked_shorting_scam_revealed_lending_of/)
|
||||
|
||||
2. [The naked shorting scam update: selling nude like its 2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/GME/comments/mh6lnz/the_naked_shorting_scam_update_selling_nude_like/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
|
||||
|
||||
3. [The naked shorting scam in numbers: AI detection of 140M hidden FTDs, up to 400M naked shorts in married puts and massive dark pool activity by Shitadel and the shorts](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mvdgf5/the_naked_shorting_scam_in_numbers_ai_detection/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
|
||||
|
||||
4. [The naked shorting scam using ETFs: mass shifting of FTDs from GME to 20+ ETFs & 27+ billion dollars still owed in remaining SI](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/n1vgbb/the_naked_shorting_scam_using_etfs_mass_shifting/)
|
||||
|
||||
5. [All New 13F filings: data visualised for all major fund position changes and the new short players in GME](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nev6po/all_new_13f_filings_data_visualised_for_all_major/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
|
||||
|
||||
6. [Analysis deep dive: looking at historical SI% + FTD data and modelling share borrow fees since Jan](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mma7eh/analysis_deep_dive_looking_at_historical_si_ftd/)
|
||||
|
||||
Now to get into the data and see what the fuck has been going on with reported stonk numbers in the last weeks.
|
||||
|
||||
*Note: this is not financial advice. I am not a cat. I gathered some data, made some figures and tried to understand them. Any number of my interpretations could be flawed and wrong. Do your own research, make your own mind up.*
|
||||
|
||||
Understanding the Cycle: Fails to deliver (FTDs) in GME and linked ETFs
|
||||
|
||||
A lot of great posts in recent weeks have looked at T-21, T-35 and more recently net capital requirement cycles. Other apes have pointed out that price often moves upward just before short interest (SI) reporting cycles to manipulate down their numbers.
|
||||
|
||||
Although elements to all these theories are now close to proven there remain some outstanding questions. Why are the cycles apparently so clean without many overlapping cycles? What is the exact trigger for the shorts' FTD countdowns?
|
||||
|
||||
I don't have the answer to these but I'll put out a bunch of data that might help the other wrinkly apes improve their theories. In later sections I also try to understand what is linking the different 'meme' stock price movements in 2021.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/vd301zksol571.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=fc0e1e050248189449d35e7cb5f498a39bb694d3)
|
||||
|
||||
Total FTDs for GME and selected ETFs in 2021 with GME close price overlaid.
|
||||
|
||||
Fails in GME dropped off after the January mini-squeeze but were transferred over to GME containing ETFs from February onwards. IWM and XRT are the most popular ETFs to naked short and fail on. In mid-May IWM, the *iShares Russell 2000 ETF*, had a massive 4 million share spike in FTDs. GME price began to rise steadily shortly after.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/12jl7hzuol571.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=d2cde3c0a6237ea464cb419c6664b5b9fba393ce)
|
||||
|
||||
Total FTDs for GME and all ETFs combined in 2021 with GME close price overlaid.
|
||||
|
||||
Although I only selected the top 19 GME containing ETFs for most of the analyses (first figure), when I grouped all GME containing ETFs together (more than 70 of them) we see that the pattern of FTDs in 2021 is very similar. This means that the selected 19 ETFs contain almost all of the interesting FTD info.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/wb6gjdhzll571.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=cdf92de9dbaebbd1542211b936f8ade353235cc9)
|
||||
|
||||
Total FTDs for GME and selected ETFs in since Jan 2020 with GME close price overlaid.
|
||||
|
||||
Looking back on GME and ETF FTDs since Jan 2020 we see that the recent large spike in IWM FTDs is actually relatively small compared to some of the FTD spikes seen in 2020. On 3 separate occasions in 2020 IWM FTDs spiked to over 8 million shares.
|
||||
|
||||
The link between GME and other 'meme' stocks
|
||||
|
||||
So it's clear to anyone that's been watching GME and the 'movie stock' for a while that they move together in a way that would not make sense in a free market.
|
||||
|
||||
Here's a figure I put together covering up to the end of May 2021. Clear correlation and fuckery between these 3 stocks.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/0oeky4jf5m571.jpg?width=2414&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3fb2229a8e39b33b8e9cd7475ab6c2febb67b7c7)
|
||||
|
||||
2021 price movements for GME and 2 other well known 'meme' stocks
|
||||
|
||||
Since I made this figure the movie stock has diverged from the GME trend. But why? Here are some figures to compare and some basic speculation.
|
||||
|
||||
Value of fails for meme stocks: GME, movie and headphone stocks
|
||||
|
||||
These plots take a look at total fail values for meme stocks and associated ETFs. It's important to plot these in fail value rather than total failed shares because each stock has a different free float and share price.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/jf8ckih0pl571.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=18d9d3ad79f57ed2b9e9c91523f37a255abee1d1)
|
||||
|
||||
Total Value of FTD fails for GME and selected ETFs in 2021 with GME close price overlaid.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/36ip4ow4pl571.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=c64a8b6b2019578e71414cddd1c7cb0e722b2dff)
|
||||
|
||||
Total Value of FTD fails for movie-stock and selected ETFs in 2021 with close price overlaid.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/lkyluj83pl571.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=966ade7d1862e23bfe7c7f65c95a40de19812295)
|
||||
|
||||
Total Value of FTD fails for headphone-stock and selected ETFs in 2021 with close price overlaid.
|
||||
|
||||
What do we notice? Well the value of fails for movie-stock and headphone-stock has always been relatively small with just a single day in January with large $100+ million dollar for each of these. GME has larger fail values in Jan across multiple days but has then dropped off in following months.
|
||||
|
||||
GME also has large fails across a bunch of ETFs but with most of the fail values occurring in IWM. *The movie-stock and headphone-stock only have fails for IWM*.
|
||||
|
||||
What links these different meme-stocks is their inclusion in the same *iShares Russell 2000 ETF - IWM.* IWM has been shorted to shit since Covid came around. It must've seemed like an obvious choice to short a bunch of vulnerable companies all at the same time. Fails are massive for IWM with up to 5-10% of total ETF shares failing on certain days in the last year.
|
||||
|
||||
Reported Short Interest for meme stocks: GME, movie and headphone stocks
|
||||
|
||||
Now we've looked at FTDs in these meme stocks let's take a look at reported short interest. This number is prone to manipulation and is reported by the very people that benefit from manipulating the number down. That being said let's see how the 'official' numbers compare.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/pcnirq7lpl571.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=fe4db101d80512e6893f3556bf013cbaea7581bb)
|
||||
|
||||
Total value of reported SI for GME and selected ETFs.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/ww7elprnql571.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f655b223c2d571cf593e298c7819b1d40780daf)
|
||||
|
||||
Total value of reported SI for movie-stock and selected ETFs.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/a7w7eufpql571.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=bb7e5662c999646ea6ac02d539ebf6de29a6b9c6)
|
||||
|
||||
Total value of reported SI for headphone-stock and selected ETFs.
|
||||
|
||||
Movie-stock SI value owed is almost exclusively coming from IWM. Since the recent run up the reported SI for the movie-stock has also increased to a similar value owed for current GME reported SI value.
|
||||
|
||||
For the headphone-stock the vast amount of reported SI value is coming from the IWM and XOP ETFs.
|
||||
|
||||
The value of GME reported OI is also dominated by the huge open short position in IWM but also with relatively large short positions in XRT and VTI.
|
||||
|
||||
So the IWM open short position is insane. Current value owed by reported IWM shorts is $30 billion when total IWM net assets are just $68 billion. That's 44% of all assets in the ETF that have been short sold with a borrow. This doesn't even include the huge number of FTDs and naked short selling for IWM in the last year.
|
||||
|
||||
Open Options Interest for meme stocks: GME and movie stocks
|
||||
|
||||
One of the weirdest things that happened after the end of Jan mini-squeeze is that open put interest in GME spiked to some pretty insane levels. [I previously suggested that this could be due to options fuckery to hide short positions](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/mvdgf5/the_naked_shorting_scam_in_numbers_ai_detection/).
|
||||
|
||||
At the end of Jan 1.5 million new put contracts were opened in just a couple of days. These contracts cover 150 million shares. Most were in junk strike prices (e.g. $0.50) that were never likely to be reached again. Recently other DD apes like [u/Leenixus](https://www.reddit.com/user/Leenixus/) have [reported finding more weird put option activity](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nxgcu5/i_taut_i_taw_a_married_put_i_did_i_did_see/).
|
||||
|
||||
Here I'll compare open option interest for GME and the movie-stock. Headphone-stock does not have options as far as I can tell. Data was obtained from [marketchameleon.com](https://marketchameleon.com/) .
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/za8mj3bexl571.png?width=4032&format=png&auto=webp&s=3d0dd92c078bf8fba10cb2c4e542788a7d098610)
|
||||
|
||||
Total open interest for puts & calls for GME since Jan 2020.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/ozvo22ffxl571.png?width=4032&format=png&auto=webp&s=aea9d6aa5a6fcb77a45467dc49add853196c7e8e)
|
||||
|
||||
Total open interest for puts & calls for GME since Jan 2020.
|
||||
|
||||
So a massive spike in GME open put interest in January that disconnected from all previous levels. A large number of puts expired in April and 410k more will expire on July 16th. Despite prices dropping down to $40 in Feb and many options expiry dates coming and going, open put interest for GME still sits at around 1 million contracts. For GME only approx. 300k put contracts were reported in 13Fs despite 1.5 million being held. *Who holds the puts? Family offices?? Shells??*
|
||||
|
||||
For the movie-stock the picture is quite different. Puts and call open interest never really diverged. The recent major run up has increased the number of open put contracts but it's still in line with the number of calls. Even at this high of 2 million open contracts it is important to remember that the movie-stock free float is approx. 10-times larger than for GME. So even with this recent bump in open interest, options fuckery is much less obvious and even if it were occurring the magnitude is 10% or less than what we've seen in GME.
|
||||
|
||||
Meme Stock Summary
|
||||
|
||||
Many of the weird indicators for GME do not show up as clearly in other meme-stocks. The most obvious similarity between them is that all 3 of the main meme stocks are part of the IWM ETF which has been shorted to shit this last year. GME is about to move out of the IWM Russell 2000 ETF and this could explode the shorts FTD juggling.
|
||||
|
||||
Why is the movie-stock moving more than GME recently? I don't really know. My guess would be that it's got extra hype at the moment but the naked short indicators are just not there. They never have been. In 2020 the max movie-stock reported SI was about 20% while GME was at the reporting limit of 140% for months. Why would they manipulate movie-stock reporting when they were so careless to report GME SI% of 140%??
|
||||
|
||||
In terms of options fuckery I just don't see it as clearly for movie-stock as for GME. There is nothing particularly out of the ordinary in the open interest. I've also not seen anyone identify deep ITM calls or married puts for the movie-stock when it's been so easy for GME and found independently over many different dates.
|
||||
|
||||
I wish the movie-stock apes all the best but worry that they might just be riding the hype. For GME on the other hand I believe that the hole has been getting deeper and deeper since the known minimum SI% of 140% reported in Jan before the major fuckery even began.
|
||||
|
||||
Dark Pool Trading in 'Squeeze Stocks'
|
||||
|
||||
In the past I reported some weird behaviour in OTC trading in GME. I took anther look and extended the analysis to 73 stocks that appear to have squeezed in 2021. This list of stocks was taken from the work of [u/BurnieSlander](https://www.reddit.com/user/BurnieSlander/) and [his post on squeeze stocks](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nzajpv/the_matrix_is_everywhere_a_quant_dd/).
|
||||
|
||||
I selected 73 stocks that have sustained a 200% growth since Jan. I then compared how these stocks have been trading compared to 9600 other stocks that trade OTC.
|
||||
|
||||
*Important note: Each stock has a different number of shares outstanding and share price. To compare these stocks I first normalised each of them by subtracting their mean value for the window and dividing by the standard deviation.*
|
||||
|
||||
The following plots show relative differences in OTC trading based on each shares' normalised values.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/4ilrlxa7ul571.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=ed29834cb0cbe1ad488e59e687438ef10df52d02)
|
||||
|
||||
Normalised OCT trading volumes for 'Squeeze' stocks and other typical stocks.
|
||||
|
||||
Through January and early Feb the squeeze stocks saw a spike in OTC trading volume on average compared to a typical stock. The total shares traded OTC were not substantially different to other stocks before or after the January period.
|
||||
|
||||
[](https://preview.redd.it/g5emeccotl571.png?width=4500&format=png&auto=webp&s=76d9229b8cdfffef0e2286f523c19e3998dc74a5)
|
||||
|
||||
Normalised OCT trading volumes for 'Squeeze' stocks and other typical stocks.
|
||||
|
||||
When we look at average shares per trade the picture is different. Note that because the data is normalised we are just looking at the relative changes over time for the squeeze stock and typical stock groups.
|
||||
|
||||
Typical stocks have not seen any major change in the average OTC trade size. The value is flat over time. For the squeeze stocks we see a dramatic shift. Particularly from January onwards, the number of shares per trade seen OTC dropped dramatically. This means smaller and smaller batches are traded OTC compared to their historical norm.
|
||||
|
||||
Some of this could be because of retail taking part in more trades and PFOF issues but I can't believe that retail is driving this consistently across 73 different stocks. Why would order size OTC drop in recent months? Could it be wash sales or 'short ladder attacks' to manipulate prices? Wrinkle apes needed for this!
|
||||
|
||||
TLDR; / Conclusion
|
||||
|
||||
Go take a look at the figures! I tried to explain as clearly as I could. The best way to understand is to look at the figures yourself. That being said here are some highlights:
|
||||
|
||||
- Huge FTDs and SI% in the IWM ETF appear to link GME and other meme stonks
|
||||
|
||||
- A recent spike in IWM FTDs may have helped to drive the recent run up in meme-stocks
|
||||
|
||||
- IWM is the iShares Russell 2000 ETF. GME will move out of this soon. How will the shorts adapt their FTD juggling? Will it even be possible for them??
|
||||
|
||||
- GME continues to have huge open put interest and observed options fuckery. Many more puts expiring on July 16.
|
||||
|
||||
- Movie stock does not have any obvious options fuckery as far as I can see. If it's there then the scale is probably no more than 10% compared to GME.
|
||||
|
||||
- OTC data is weird and consistent across more than 70 different stocks that have maintained 200%+ gains since January. Why are average OTC trade sizes so small for these 70 stocks? Could this be wash sales to manipulate prices down? Something else??
|
||||
|
||||
I've been zen with GME for months now and full YOLO. I wanted to get a 200+ million vote count announced but what we got changes nothing. Evidence of mass fuckery with GME for months. Price movements that make the fuckery undeniable. Huge GME fails and SI hidden in options and ETFs that will eventually unravel. A great team of execs now at Gamestop leading the turn around. In short, I like the stock.
|
||||
|
||||
🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user