This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Italy May Enforce Naked Short Selling Ban As Early As Tonight To Prevent Market Rout
Once again the great diversionary scapegoating of speculators begins, after as Il Sole 24 Ora reported that the Consob, or Italy's regulator, may enact a naked short selling ban as early as tonight. The premise is that it is the shorters who are responsible for the ruinous state of the global ponzi. Not the fact that it is a, well, global ponzi. Distraction 101. And yes, it did not work back in 2010 when banning naked shorting was implemented in other European countries, it will not work this time either. But it won't stop bankrupt governments from trying. To wit: "Commissioners will assess the situation before markets open Monday, said a Consob spokesman, who declined to be named in line with the regulator's policy. Commissioners may decide to restrict "naked" short-selling in line with similar decisions taken in other European countries, he said.... The Consob meeting occurs after shares of Italy’s biggest
banks fell to the lowest in more than two years on July 8, and
government bonds dropped, driving 10-year yields to a nine-year
high." 24 Ore adds: "Consob intervened several times in the past on short selling after the collapse of Lehman Brothers to protect stock markets."
More from 24 Ore:
Meanwhile on Sunday afternoon, Lamberto Cardia, Consob, who led Consob from 2003 to 2010, had more to say. For Cardia short selling "in the presence of a serious crisis should be totally prohibited for the period required." For the former chairman of Consob, the day after the crash of Lehman Brothers Bank restricts short-selling within three days, "it is preferable to a reduction in short-term market movements rather than attend to the serious damage that will result in load of listed companies, also strategic for the country. "
And to think there was a time when the stock market could drop without resulting in strategic consequences for the host country...
As noted, this is not the first time this approach has been taken:
On July 5, European lawmakers voted in favor of a ban on short selling of government bonds in the EU unless traders have at least “located and reserved” in advance the securities they intend to sell. The European Union Parliament in Strasbourg, France, also called for restrictions on traders’ use of credit- default swaps to profit from defaults on sovereign debt they don’t own.
The European Securities and Markets Authority, which co- ordinates the work of national regulators in the 27-nation EU, should be given emergency powers to temporarily ban short selling or trades in CDS on sovereign debt in the EU, the Parliament said.
Politicians including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have claimed that naked short- selling and credit-default swaps worsened the euro area’s sovereign-debt crisis, and have called for EU curbs.
Michel Barnier, the EU’s financial-services chief, said last year such trades may lead to “disorderly markets and systemic risks.” Finance ministers from the 27-nation region agreed in May that traders should be allowed to short sell government bonds and stocks if they have a “reasonable expectation” that they can obtain the underlying securities. They also rejected calls from Germany for a ban on sovereign CDS.
Alas, this is nothing more than an attempt to indicate that Consob has control over the situation when it has none. As a reminder the US instituted a ban on all short sales in financials, only to see longs dump all their holdings and lead to the biggest plunge in the market in the aftermath of the Lehman collapse.
Thus, in attempting to mitigate the crisis in the aftermath of "Black Friday", Italian authorities may have just made the bears' job that much easier.
h/t G.C.
- 10593 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


It's all good, Brosephs:
Italy, Shcmitally.
Debt, Schmet.
Default, Schmefault.
PIIGS, SchPIIGS.
Naked shorting should be banned everywhere......all the time
+1
Italy's Regulators fight the nuts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1tdfucQfCo
Totally agree. As Max Keiser says, it's just another type of counterfeiting.
+100. Amen! It is counterfeiting and theft, pure and simple. The opposite of free market capitalism.
To 'defenders' of NSS: How would you like it if you built a company and some jackasses could just will its shares into existence and sell them at any time? Why does the SEC even bother with all the stringent share registration requirements if they allow this to persist? The fact that the SEC winks at it proves they are the pathetic lap poodles of the elite broker lords.
Regular short selling is fine and healthy for markets.
You can't sell Consob short. They are a very creative bunch.
Git yer gold while supplies last!!!
Italy may be the first BIG example of what´s coming...
Just a few more weeks to get gold please! Just a few! I promise, and then I will have enough!
Water filter and food too. Maybe another 300 rounds of ammo for each...
+1
My soul mate!
Not really lolz.
Good luck!
Shit is happening too fast for me and I can't make any purchases! I want da gold. Gimmie da gold.
And the housing bubble in Italy is also hughe.
500K for a rowhouse is quite normal in Rome these days. The older the more expensive is their crede. It's just nuts. And rental prices are tiny compaired to the selling prices.
1. Rates are going up so there will be massive foreclosures comming
2. Unemployment is quite high en will get a lot higher.
3. No real efficient industry base.
This coctail is toxic!
Gags....
In US Dollars or Italian money?
Maybe those big brass beds that are fuckable for strength might still have value on the firesale market.
the made in europe kind of funny paper.
Lol, Dochen, even a shrimp like me already knows for almost 2 years that Draghi (ex goldman sucks) made deals for Italy like Greece. The market (giants) know this way longer. I see no suprises coming exept paper going higher. ECB has the same owners as the FED.
That's what the Fed said. Flag moving time?
Shouldn't be called a "market" anymore. So medicated and manipulated that simple buying and selling, or anticipatory buying and selling is challenged.
Gonna get even more nuts when US GDP becomes further downestimated with new China export news. Carry on!
algos will read- less countries may default than predicted this weekend,. Dow -5th dimension, "up up an away"...more fluoride and chemtrails right away!!
should be named and written for what it is.. Conjob.
Just ban selling of any kind. Buying only permitted.
Don't be silly... we can't ban all selling. What about the insiders and the VIPs? We must allow them to cash out -- at inflated prices, of course -- or the world will end!!1!1! After all, why do you think they're pumping up stocks everyday... the wealth effect? The good of the pension funds?
That's what the comex did when silver prices became too high in 1980. Banned all buying..only selling allowed. Meanwhile board members of the comex were well stocked on their shorts and did quite well.
I read some articles about the comex scam in 1980, one of the articles included an interview with one of the Hunt brothers where he explained how Comex retroactively changed the margin requirements which pretty much wiped the Hunt brothers and their investment associates out. It blew my mind that Comex could just change the rules in the middle of the game to enable an outcome that they desired. The board of the Comex were in fact loaded up on shorts and made a killing.
IIRC, that article basically indicated the Hunt brothers were not speculating. They were long silver, and were intending to take delivery, until the Comex changed the rules as to how many contracts a person may be long.
That plus the overnight change in the margin requirements, forced them to liquidate.
I think you're on to something. Are you an EEA economic consultant?
if i can't trade naked....
might as well put on pants
and go bugger porcupines ....
+100
ahhh.... having pulled my share of quills out of dogs, even with pants that sounds painful...... but then again..... traders have never stuck me as "mentally sound".
should gold have a strong open at 6?
I´ll be by a little later to take a look at gold´s price as well.
Thought naked shorting was...you know...not legal. It's called counterfeiting.
the squid has tentacles made of synthetic cdo.
In the real world where Jamie & Lloyd don't write the laws and pay(off) the regulators...
like printing fiat
my first thought, too. lulz at when it's become so commonly accepted to commit crime that it warrants special mention when the relevant financial authority decides to actually prosecute the crime.
and it entertains me that i go away for a week and pay little attention to the latest round of financial impending doomness, and now it's a different country about to go down the crapper. my bets are for the UK next week!
Banning short sellers is rather like shouting "Oh sh!t this is bad" from the rooftops. In doing this, they'll actually scare real investors into cash withdrawls and stock dumps.
Short selling should be banned if the short seller can't beg, borrow or rent (note: I didn't include "steal") some real valid shares to deliver to the buyer. He also shouldn't get the use of the money he gets from the short sale until he covers. The non-naked shorter also has a risk of a short squeeze, which may not a problem for the naked short seller with the resources to short the company into oblivion.
Otherwise, I agree completely that short sellers add liquidity and honesty to a free market.
No kidding.
"Finance ministers from the 27-nation region agreed in May that traders should be allowed to short sell government bonds and stocks if they have a “reasonable expectation” that they can obtain the underlying securities. They also rejected calls from Germany for a ban on sovereign CDS."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-10/consob-may-ban-restrict-naked-short-selling-at-meeting-sunday-night.html
---so let's say somebody sells naked bonds to squeeze Italy. Let's see how many UNCOLLATERALIZED collateralized subprimes the subprime dealers sold? $200 Trillions worth-when there was ONLY $86 trillion(?) bonds that exist on the US markets?
Uhhhh-Did the subprime dealers think that they could collateralize $200 trillion worth of subprimes with only $86 trillions of bonds (IF that?)....
*NO*.
$200 TRILLION > $86 TRILLION. By a lot of money. The difference is $114 Trillion, I'm sure Bernanke's printing press of tax dollar collected Treasury yields and inflation of USD has that in it's back pockets.
But the subprime dealers did it anyways, against better judgement. Thank you SFAS140 and Repo101.
It seems like the EU is putting Italy in an unfair position and it's pushing the Euro down on purpose. The naked short selling reminds me of how Soros shorted the British pound and the Myanmar currency. At least Soros was straight forward with his intentions, the EUis not.
Again, What makes the Finance Ministers in Europe think that Wall STreet speculators and others in hidden tax shelters are going to sell naked on reasonable expectation that they can obtain bonds (that might not exist) based on Wall Street's past behavior of selling uncollateralized "collateralized" debt obligations they couldn't cover?
Why is the EU/Finance Ministers/The European Securities and Markets Authority putting Italy in a bad position? The Euro (that they head) is getting dragged down because of this. To anyone else this is a rather bad judgement call on their part. Hmmmm....are they forcing Italy to take a bailout?
The question is WHY?
1. Find out who exactly decided to make and announce this change.
2. Take a look at their personal investment portfolio.
3. Marvel at the beauty of their leveraged short position.
ZHers should know better than to assume government officials are actually trying to help their countries. The top has been reached, the short squeeze is over, and the algos have been reprogrammed to 'down' mode. They won't get any more free goodies until the panic level is notched up a lot.
and away from their banks. Thanks Mr. ECB! At least when Greenspan did it we had to wait for the inevitible. Here's the Greenspan approach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTnj-pkWN18&feature=player_detailpage
versus as posted earlier "The Trichet Way":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=djZFHTa6TfA
six of one half dozen of the other i guess.
Yeah, well good luck with that Italy. .govs never learn...
LMAO!! 07-10 15:09: Trichet says stronger economic governance needed in EU, WSJ reports
Everything right now has reached the point of Absurdum Maximus.
In other words, this is what it sounds like when PIIGS+UK+US fly.
A car was auto photographed running a red light 8 feet above the intersection during Katrina. The speed was shown about 134 mph. The vehicle was upside down and planed all wrong.
The tickets went out anyway.
Bzzzzzzz! Wrong answer! Things are going to get MUCH MORE absurd, mon ami...
from reuters:
"From tomorrow, we have the job of showing we are united and blocking the effort of speculators," said Paolo Bonaiuti, a government undersecretary and senior aide to Berlusconi...
Italy is taking the wrong approach. The way to handle naked short sellers is by taking their money. The way to do that is to take deep government pockets and force the stock to up. Announce something incredible to drive the price up. Force a merger if necessary. Before long you will soon all the naked shorts. A company I know of was getting clobbered by naked shorts and then out of the blue we were purchased by a bigger company for double the open market price. What a squawk. Two brokerage houses in Canada and one in the Netherlands came begging for mercy.
Force a merger if necessary
With Greece, China, Germany or the US? Decide.
Perhaps with Tom Cruise and John Travolta via Scientology. The aliens will take care of the planet Earth playthings!
The Italian "regulatory" approach reeks of bureaucratic impotence. Press releases before the fact are counter-productive. And some mid-level bureaucrat in Rome or Milan doesn't have access to deep enough pockets to to scare away TBTF vultures, if they are even employing a simplistic and primarilly short equity strategy.
But it is necessary to beat the bankers at their own game- their lack of fear and consequences has catastrophic global consequences. And watching a TBTF who thinks "daddy is going to bail him out" skull fucked all the way to the poor house is better bread & circus for the masses than American Idol or whatever inconsequential garbage they are watching on TV now.
Oh yeah, since "to the victor go the spoils" is the first rule of death/piss match banking- if they do it right, they'll some have some extra dough to either help out the weaker EU hands less able to defend themselves, or pay off a few pennies of that obnoxious debt.
You clerarly dont understand markets if you think AOL-Warner type mergers are the answer. Because trust me , anyone buying anyone since 08 is paying a premium that will vapourize. Shorts are an integral part to markets. What do imagine will happen if there were zero shorts in the market on an NFP number like Fri? Selling begets selling. A healthy SI is a healthy market.
Shorts are an integral part of natural market movements.
This is an orchestrated for profit gang-rape of Italy by big money.
The governments are already incessantly intervening in the markets to maintain the status quo, and the Robber Barons are profiting handsomely by their efforts, so there really isn't a natural short interest or a healthy market at this point in time to be detrimentally impacted by further government intervention.
The HUDSUCKER Proxy!!!!
AWESOME!
what damage did the Brokerage houses suffer? Did they survive?
Whats the deal with encouraging even more market manipulation?
Who here thinks short sales are "bad"? Next stop , a nice grey uniform , 1 size fits all. The youngsters of you will be down the salt mine though , no need for uniforms down there.
One securities dealer survived. One lost all the management and paid fines but carried on. It seems they were operating an insider operation through the Bahamas. The company that purchased us lost all of its management in the same scam. Apparently they would naked short companies until they were crumbling, bring in a buyer and tell them what a great deal they had, switch to long when the deal was imminent and then get out when it became public.
First Italy stops the naked short selling. Then they lobby Moodys' for an upgrade.
Just by saying they aren't allowed anymore makes sure that everybody will take notice of the fact and even forces the media to focus on Italy making matters worse.
I would have already thought they learned that this way is the bad way to cover things up.
That worked great for Greece and Ireland (not).
No naked short-selling ?!?!
You know it's serious when they start enforcing rules against felony fraud in the stock markets.
I think enforcing the Naked Short Selling ban is a good idea...
But I have no idea on how they can enforce this since there are plenty of money hungry EU banks that are eager to take the short side of this trade.
What is banning naked short sellers going to achieve anyways? Even without commiting that kind of fraud the normal, legal short sellers are going to enjoy taking a massive chunk out of the market!
As other posters have said, this is the kind of news that draws sharks....
"But I have no idea on how they can enforce this since there are plenty of money hungry EU banks that are eager to take the short side of this trade"
WE HAVE NO MONEY TO BAIL THEM OUT WITH.
If they want to legalize naked short selling, then the buyers should be allowed to go after the sellers/writers for everything they have if the trade goes bad. Who enforces this? the CBOE does. Unfortunately, we're not dealing with options, we're dealing with bonds.
Who enforces bond regulation? The SEC. Who enforces subprime interest rate swap/uncollatarliased "collateralized" debt obgligations? Not the CFTC!
http://dailybail.com/home/wendy-gramm-judge-bruce-levine-criminal-behavior-at-the-cftc.html
We should let them do anything they want WITHOUT A BAILOUT. Then hand the buyers AK47s with bullets to collect from sellers since neither the courts or the cftc is enforcing this. If Obama can squander bailout funds to hand AK47's to Mexican cartels- we can give them to naked bond buyers as well.
Who the heck is buying naked bonds anyways? What are they smoking?
Make no mistake the modern free banking CBs are behind this chaos.
The ECB is their new creation freed completly from the confines of the nation state.
The various petty elites held withen the confines of the old nation states do not know what they are fighting.
The true elite look on them as they did the clans of highland Scotland - bothersome anarchisms that soon will be subsumed withen their new social engineering construct.
Some Nations states are cooperative Campbells such as Germany is now and others are bothersome Jacobite's that must be routed.
My only hope is that their free banking structure is so unproductive & synthetic that it may not be a sustainable vehicle for their dark ambitions.
Once the global CBs created various synthetic currencies the nation state was a dead entity walking.
They have created these Nation states and now wish to destroy them - its as simple as that really.
All this is a macabre theatre.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq4SqgxIKM0
Dork,
I hope that you are wrong about Germany.
To some extent Germany cooperates but in other cases not so much.
Examples for non-cooperation are the natgas pipeline through the baltic sea, the vote in the security council on Libya or lately the tank sale to the Saudis.
Changing sides in the own interest has a precedent in Prussian history when the Prussian army refused to fight for the French and declared "neutrality."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_of_Tauroggen
I can only hope for Germany that this spirit is still alive but I am not sure. Every time I see reports of Merkel's actions I get strong doubts.
D of C,
What you have outlined truly is "macabre theatre". While I truly hope you are incorrect in your view, I grudging have to concede that you may indeed be correct.......
I have enjoyed reading your postings on ZH.
L
Oh boy!
Cannot wait for the Fireworks to begin!
as usual, changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game
so just put on a pair of boxers and short to ZERO
No naked short-selling ?!?!?
It's none of their damn business what I wear while I'm selling those bastards short!
we have no bailout for you. don't come crying for one if the trade goes bad.
I thought Spain would b next and then Italy, Italy must have a bunch of problems that are breaking out right now.
PORCA MISERIA! MALEDETTO!
The time to short Spanish banks could be soon!
Wait a minute.
Time to short the whole Ponzi could be soon.
This is pretty much one of the last warnings you will get to escape risk. Timing the top will be impossible but the "short sale ban" meme is pretty much the final straw that the corrupt elite can play.
Whenever the gambling table is tilted too far to one side, the PigMen always get help from the Plutocrats to do something to reverse direction and burn the speculators.
Gotta think about it.
If you were Goldman, what is going to be the fastest, easiest way to make money in the shortest period of time?
Burn all the late shorts in the PIIGS bond market.
Reminds me of an old Chinese Proverb
Man who scratches ass should not bite fingernails.
boy, those are 2 tough habits aren't they?
good luck to both of you!
Ughhh (groan).... thanks for the laugh.
Quote BELOW /<>/.
Man who scratches "ASS" while sleeping... Wakes up with "Stinky Finger"..
Goldman might be short themselves. They would short Jesus Christ in the final battle of good and evil if there was a buck to be made.
The squid breaks all sorts of laws in the US. What is going to stop them in Europe? Especially when naked short selling will fetch them a mint?
A Mint?
Those are illegal to own and operate here in the USA.
/snarky comment.
When that battle comes what other side would they be on?
@RobotTrader
I agree, I forgot that rule a couple weeks ago when the whole world was short for the end of QEII and quickly stopped out of my inverse funds. I forgot about the money that can be made from a short squeeze. If there is money to be made the squid will find it. Do you have any suggestions?
Which all presumes everything is controllable . . .
Like a Brent spread at $22?
YouTube - ?The Who - Squeeze Box?
eur/usd off to the races
Naked short selling is allowed only if you are a prime broker. Gsachs, Bernie Madoff yes all naked shortsellers.
To naked short, You sell a stock short with out first borrowing it. This proves it is much easier to sell something you don't own that steal someting you don't own
Tyler can I sell you the Brooklyn Bridge
I will sacrifice for you. And give you a real bargain
I always wondered why you want everyone to own an easily cornered comodity like gold.
And now you think the banning of naked short selling is a travesty
Are you a prime broker?
Neither am I
I will have to borrow the Brooklyn bridge before I sell it to you. Ha Ha
about 2 years ago, a unemployed man walking into the Hilton in my home city with some investors.
He sold it for 9 million euro with a first downpayment of 1 million.
The scam was discovered when a construction crew arrived who wanted to remodel the hotel for the new owners.
You don't have to own shit to sell it. You just have to say you do and walk away before the shit hits the fan.
In 2015, people will say: We should have let those countries default. It's because of them that the system imploded.
When faced with no alternatives, we should face the facts.
2015
can i get one of those borrowed brooklyn bridges?
what if all shorts are not created equal?
aren't there some real differences among 'naked' shorting:
Thinking out loud-
I think the stock market was originally intended to let savers invest in (gamble on) new businesses. If the new business prospered (investors won their bets) the investors were rewarded with stock appreciation &/or dividends. And the economy was improved, produced more or better stuff for consumers. And jobs.
Now, however, we have one big casino where anyone can bet on any of a large number of financial instruments designed soley for gambling. Selling short or naked short or CDS's or CDO's are nothing more than financial instrument used to gamble with no intent whatsoever to improve the economy. It's just people trying to take money from other people & make easy money by not working.
And of course just like on a regular casino the house controls everything. Who is the house? TBTF & their facilitator, the Fed. And where do you think the TBTF's winnings come from? The retail investor & by printing free money & borrowing it from the Fed at 0% & lending it out for 10, 20, 30%. And who do you think controls the price of stock's? Some people with a few to a few hundred thousand dollars or some other people with a few hundred billion?
Rots of ruck on those naked shorts.
Ignore them!
Short the MoFo's !!!!!!!!!
This is supposed to be a "Free Market!"
BTW, I bought three extra Bags of Popcorn to watch this show.
All the Slobs are Cons.....
Damn
Conslobs.
Every consider central bank ponzi ...??? Silly Conslobs,won't admit the truth.
I thought naked short selling was already banned - as in, illegal?