short selling

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A 'Shocking' Find on Trading Ahead of Hamas' Oct. 7 Attack

New research suggests that investors profited ahead of the assault by short-selling shares

(Newser) - New research that looks at trading in the days before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, in which at least 1,200 were killed, is raising suspicions on exactly who knew what before the assault. The 66-page paper published by NYU law professor Robert Jackson Jr. and Columbia law...

Elon Musk Adds Fuel to the GameStop Fire

He simply tweeted 'Gamestonk!!'

(Newser) - It's "a head-scratching David and Goliath story," as the AP puts it, and Elon Musk on Tuesday lobbed a rock in the giant's direction. Musk tweeted a single word, "Gamestonk!!"—and it was enough to send GameStop's share price temporarily over the...

Tesla Sells Out of '$69.420' Short Shorts

Musk taunts short sellers with 'fabulous' shorts

(Newser) - After a surge in Tesla's share price, CEO Elon Musk celebrated in typically understated fashion: He taunted short-sellers by selling short shorts through Tesla's online store, apparently setting the price at the first numbers that came into his head: $69.420. CNET notes the 420 part might be...

His Plot to Make $607,933.50: 3 Bombs, One Soccer Team

Electrician Segej Wenergold is on trial in Germany after bizarre scheme

(Newser) - In April of last year, three bombs detonated as a bus carrying the Borussia Dortmund soccer team left a hotel in Germany. As it turns out, only one player suffered minor injuries, but the high-profile attack led authorities to assume that Islamist terrorists were to blame. They could not have...

Meet the Man Who Kills Stock Values for Fun and Profit

If Andrew Left writes about a company, its stock drops 10% on average

(Newser) - Andrew Left made $280,000 in two hours by short-selling stock in a Chinese real estate company, then publishing claims the company was committing accounting fraud. Shortly after the 2016 election, Left issued a series of tweets about a company called Express Scripts, accusing it of inflating drug prices; the...

Elon Musk Snarks on Twitter Over Tesla Record

Company just surpassed Ford, now right behind GM with $47.8B valuation

(Newser) - The casual observer checking out Elon Musk's Twitter feed Monday may not have sensed the shade he was throwing with his one short tweet proclaiming, "Stormy weather in Shortville…," but the Tesla CEO was actually crowing a bit at some news about his company's stock, as...

Facebook Backers Helped Short Sellers

Morgan Stanley adjusting thousands of first-day trades

(Newser) - Some traders at the underwriters of Facebook's bungled IPO were busy aiding short sellers who bet the stock would drop in the days after its debut, the Wall Street Journal finds. Insiders say traders at JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs were loaning out the shares hedge funds needed to bet...

European Countries Ban Short Selling

First Western ban on practice since Lehman fall

(Newser) - European markets are up today following the decision by four countries to ban short-selling of some stocks. After stumbling this morning, London’s FTSE 100, Frankfurt’s Dax, and Paris' Cac rose between 1.5% and 2.5%, the BBC reports. The last major Western short-selling ban came in the...

Feds Sue Big Oil Traders for Goosing Prices

Regulators say they scored $50M by manipulating '08 spike

(Newser) - Federal regulators have charged a pair of big-time traders and their firms with illegally manipulating oil prices during the 2008 oil crisis. According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the firms made $50 million in “unlawful profits” by hoarding nearly two-thirds of the oil available in one major US...

Congressmen Bet Against Stocks Amid Crisis

All while some were decrying short selling

(Newser) - You know those evil short-sellers at Goldman Sachs and elsewhere that lawmakers have been railing against since around the start of the financial crisis? Well pot, meet kettle. The Wall Street Journal has identified 13 members of Congress who in some way bet against the market during the 2008 financial...

Movie Stock Exchange Proves Wall Street's Mad
Movie Stock Exchange Proves Wall Street's Mad
Steven Pearlstein

Movie Stock Exchange Proves Wall Street's Mad

Speculation doesn't really help anyone

(Newser) - The announcement that investors can soon buy “futures” in Hollywood movies, shouldn’t be too surprising—it’s the logical extension of what financial markets have become. Once tools for raising capital for real businesses, the markets “have turned themselves into high-tech casinos,” writes Steven Pearlstein of...

Like a Movie's Chances? Now You Can Bet on It

First futures market for films about to begin

(Newser) - 3D isn’t the only immersive movie experience out there—soon, filmgoers will be able to play Hollywood mogul and bet on box office in the nation’s first film industry futures exchange. Cantor Futures, expected to gain regulatory approval next month, will allow anyone to buy contracts starting at...

Feds Investigate Whether Hedge Funds Sank Euro

'Idea meeting' may constitute collusion

(Newser) - The Justice Department has begun an investigation into a group of hedge funds that may have colluded to short-sell the euro, driving down its value and driving up their profits. Justice sent a letter to SAC, Greenlight, and Soros—among others—the same day the Wall Street Journal reported that...

Goldman Nemesis Says Bank Misleading Lawmakers

(Newser) - Matt Taibbi, who portrayed Goldman Sachs as evil personified in a much-discussed Rolling Stone article over the summer, has the bank in his sights again. In his blog on True/Slant, Taibbi accuses Goldman of misleading and purposely confusing lawmakers about the practice known as naked short selling as new financial...

Short Sellers Reined In by SEC, Lenders

(Newser) - After years of criticism, the SEC is reigning in short sellers, the Wall Street Journal reports. First it cracked down on “naked” short selling, the practice of selling stock one doesn’t actually possess, and tomorrow it could reinstate the “uptick rule,” which had, until 2007, forced...

New SEC Chief Moves Fast to Restore Agency

Schapiro fills openings, reverses Bush policies at battered regulator

(Newser) - New chairwoman Mary Schapiro isn’t wasting time making over the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York Times reports, reversing several of her predecessor’s policies and filling key positions that have sat vacant for months. “I recognize that we could all be defined by what we missed...

VW Gamble Nets Porsche $20B, Wallops Hedge Funds

Short bets could push some European traders to bankruptcy after stock soars

(Newser) - Hedge funds that bet on a dive in Volkswagen shares are nursing some pretty stiff hangovers—to the tune of a possible $20 billion in losses—after the shares soared when rival Porsche announced over the weekend it had secretly acquired a 74% stake in its fellow German automaker, reports...

Stocks Rise at Open as Jobless Claims Fall
Stocks Rise at Open as Jobless Claims Fall
MARKETS

Stocks Rise at Open as Jobless Claims Fall

But volatility ensures we'll need to update this in no time

(Newser) - Stocks saw a strong open this morning, with the Dow rising 135 points after a positive quarterly report from IBM and a rally in European stocks, the Wall Street Journal reports. But investors were also mulling a worse-than-expected jobs report. Though new jobless claims fell by 20,000 last week,...

Now Brace for Short-Sellers
 Now Brace for Short-Sellers 

Now Brace for Short-Sellers

Wall Street steels for end of ban short-selling

(Newser) - The controversial three-week ban on short-selling financial stocks ends at midnight tonight and analysts are uncertain about the impact on an already-traumatized Wall Street. Financial shares have plunged 23% since the ban was imposed, suggesting short-selling might not have played as large a role as suspected in earlier declines, reports...

The Markets Have Evened Out When ...
The Markets
Have Evened Out When ...
OPINION

The Markets Have Evened Out When ...

Analyst gives four signs of sanity to scan your tea leaves for

(Newser) - The main thing ailing the credit markets is a crisis of information, writes L. Gordon Crovitz in the Wall Street Journal, so it’ll probably end when we have some. Things may be looking up when…
  • Prices are discovered: Right now, there’s no demand for mortgage-backed securities, and hence
...

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