“Exception for Options Market Makers from Short Selling Close-Out Provisions in Reg SHO Repealed” Market makers used to be exempt from most short selling restrictions- even the last emergency order excluded them. Now even they need to have solid pre-borrows before shorting. This is a big change in policy. All naked shorts on MM’s book will now need to “abide by the hard T+3 closeout requirements that effectively ban naked short selling.” http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2008/2008-204.htm
Hold on…you were shorting MM’s naked? yummy!
Holy crap look at what happen to the stocks with largest short interest as % of float…CALM, CAEI, JOSB, CORS, NTRI, FTEK, CONN, NILE SHORT SQUEEZE! ------------------------- Largest Nasdaq Short Interest vs Free Float as of Aug. 15 By Wendy Soong Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) – The following table ranks companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market that have more than 10 percent of their shares available for trading sold short by investors as of Aug. 15 settlement date. *T Short Interest Short Interest Equity Float Ticker Name / Float % (In mln shrs) (In mln shrs) ================================================================= CALM Cal-Maine Foods Inc 119.47 14.06 11.77 CAEI China Architectural Engineering Inc 118.90 2.24 1.89 JOSB JOS A Bank Clothiers Inc 91.50 15.23 16.64 CORS Corus Bankshares Inc 83.17 22.50 27.06 NTRI NutriSystem Inc 67.66 17.41 25.74 FTEK Fuel Tech Inc 60.75 9.41 15.49 CONN Conn’s Inc 58.51 7.04 12.03 NILE Blue Nile Inc 58.27 8.00 13.73 WBMD WebMD Health Corp 58.27 4.99 8.56 NETL Netlogic Microsystems Inc 58.13 10.15 17.46 TRLG True Religion Apparel Inc 55.24 11.34 20.52 SHLD Sears Holdings Corp 54.55 33.66 61.70 ARTC Arthrocare Corp 50.90 13.40 26.34 USNA USANA Health Sciences Inc 49.21 2.51 5.10 SPWR Sunpower Corp 48.97 18.94 38.68 EMKR Emcore Corp 48.77 33.21 68.10 BWLD Buffalo Wild Wings Inc 48.50 7.87 16.23 GMCR Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc 47.60 9.02 18.96 WERN Werner Enterprises Inc 47.31 17.17 36.28 SORC Source Interlink Cos Inc 46.28 12.26 26.50 PHHM Palm Harbor Homes Inc 46.18 3.74 8.10
I am a MM and that rule sux for me
how do you think lending desks are feeling?? 
As just a poor retail schlump I feel that short selling stuff is a little nuts. I’ve been reading about a deal that ESLR did with Lehman. They legally registered 30 million shares (1/4 their market cap) and then rented them to Lehman for 1 penny each. Lehman sold them on the open market. At that point, there were effectively 150 million shares outstanding but the accountants said they didn’t have to account for the loaned shares (not even as diluted shares). Shares outstanding matter for EPS but they are also are part of the supply & demand dynamic for pricing stocks. The short sellers need to be mindful of supply and not be able to manufacture extra shares (i.e. sell shares that don’t exist, or create shares legally that aren’t accounted for). That’s just common sense. What do I know…statistically, it’s probably ok 97% of the time.