All,
I would like to introduce a related issue by asking what may be a very naive question. The issue is that of determining the number of shares available for (legal) shorting.
The attention and emphasis to date has reasonably been placed on those shares in taxable accounts for which certificates can be requested. I have inferred that those shares in tax-deferred accounts (Keoghs, IRAs, etc.) are not requestable because they are being held in trust for those persons covered by the IRAs. I have similarly inferred that these shares are not legally loanable, either, and hence are not being counted.
What I don't understand is why they aren't. If the trustees must legally have the shares (they must, mustn't they, or else why wouldn't we ask our trustees to request them on our behalf?), then the shares in these accounts should be treated identically to those for which certs have been requested.
And just as Joe has kept a running tally of those shares for which certs have been requested, wouldn't a request for a running total of those (tax-deferred) shares unavailable for certs yield equally useful information? I have corresponded with Joe privately about this, but I still don't understand either the "certifiable" status of tax-deferred shares nor why this information wouldn't be useful..... I'm convinced my lack of understanding is absolutely not Joe's fault, BTW. <g>
The information may or may not be relevant. But if a company has 25 million shares outstanding and 5 million of them are held in tax-deferred accounts, and there is any way to ensure that tax-deferred shares are not loaned to the shorts, then it seems to me it'd be very useful to be able to add the number of tax-deferred shares to the "certified" ones to get closer to being able to determine what the actual legally loanable number of shares really is.
I presume there's a basic truth relative to to the loanability of tax-deferred shares of which I'm simply ignorant. Can anyone enlighten me?
Tia,
Steve Bergman |
