Thursday, July 26, 2012

https://institutional.vanguard.com/iam/pdf/ICRSL.pdf?cbdForceDomain=true

Extremely important document outlining Vanguards intentions to loan out the most scarce stocks to borrow that yield the highest "negative rebate" ... in other words the very stocks that short sellers think are most likely to go down Vanguard is the most eager to lend out ... in other words the higher the bribe the more likely Vanguard will consent to the assassination of your stock. Seriously? Yes really... if its just any old stock they may ignore it... but the more short sellers want it ... the more likely they lend it out... what didn't they mention...the risk that the short seller that borrowed your Apple in exchange for the highest negative rebate are hell bent on eating as much of your Apple as they can before returning it... and they paid your mutual fund manager a bribe to look the other way... To get Vanguard to look the other way you'll have to pay up... so essentially Vanguard is holding out for the highest bribe among other funds who may settle for less earlier... wow thanks! So that makes Vanguard the greediest of all the accomplices to murdering our stock.. that makes them so much more ethical ... NOT. So they are the most conservative among a den of thieves still makes them a thief for handing the crooks our capital... IMHO they still violate our trust and breach prudent man rules regarding fiduciary duty to their investors. Investors should demand an end to Securities Lending at any negative rebate. This should not be left to some manager to decide if the "risks" justify the negative rebate. They are socializing the loses(of the stock going down in aggregate after funds flood short sellers with supply to short ) and privatizing the gains... by the negative rebates. So happens that Vanguard by holding out for the highest negative rebates are good and maximizing the private gains but they are not stopping the socializing of the losses... If the short sellers succeed in taking out the stock to the woodshed high negative rebates will NOT be enough to compensate for the loss. Say you own 1000 stocks each worth 10$ and short sellers offer to pay you $2 to borrow 100 of them they think will go down in value... I presume Vanguards assumption is that all of the stocks they agree to the bribe will not go down at the same time... such that the amount they get for the ones that don't go down will offset the fact they let the short sellers have a field day with the ones that did go down... of course we all know what happens in black swan market crashes they all go down at the same time... and that negative rebate they collected will in no way be enough to compensate for the fact the short sellers cleaned house by V selling your stock down the river for a song (but they only sell the most expensive songs)...
notice they don't give us a histogram of the range of income across the stocks they lend...
just how high on average is this so called maximized negative rebate...
Are they willing to tell shareholders..
Hats of to V for trying to be ethical in regards to safe collateral and all the other strategies but at the end of the day they still lent the stock out to Charles Hayes of Pacific Heights hell bent on destroying the stock I don't care how much they bribe you stop lending out our stock!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

How an apple can explain short-selling

one of the best analogies yet
How an apple can explain short-selling

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14510946


The small fee is no where near enough to compensate for the damage done by short sellers. The Securities Lending industry is a crock built on pittance bribes and deception/lack of transparency to shareholders whose managers have sold their customers assets down the river for a song. The regulations permit funds to lend out 30% of the fund to short sellers. Unfortunately, due to the nature of relative performance comparisons by Rating agencies like Morningstar, the managers are caught in a prisoner's dilemma of privatizing the gains and socializing the losses and most accept this as industry best practice. Is it any wonder the market has trouble going up over the long run now with the huge overhang of recursively short sold stock without an uptick rule in place to stop or at least significantly slow the process as more and more 120/20 or short ETF's come on board. Well gee at least we got rid of the FTD naked shorts only to see them hide behind ever increasingly sophisticated option trades that create synthetic short positions expanding the stock supply. Charles Hayes of Pacific Heights is winning the battle for control of your assets.

Contact your mutual/pension fund and ask them if they lend your stock to short sellers and if they do ...tell them to stop...and if they don't ... find a fund who doesn't sell your assets down the river for a song.
Sadly some of the biggest names in the mutual fund industry are also the biggest names in the securities lending industry.. Yes Mr. Bogle Enough is Enough...but your fund company is responsible for violating its fiduciary duty and my trust by doing something as imprudent as lending my stock out to trained assassins.