GameStop was 140% short. That is illegal. So how did it happen?

Naked Shorting Explained 

Naked shorting is the illegal practice of short selling shares that have not been affirmatively determined to exist. Ordinarily, traders must borrow a stock, or determine that it can be borrowed, before they sell it short. So naked shorting refers to short pressure on a stock that may be larger than the tradable shares in the market. Despite being made illegal after the 2008–09 financial crisis, naked shorting continues to happen because of loopholes in rules and discrepancies between paper and electronic trading systems.

The above is from Investopedia What is Naked Shorting?

What's Going On?

1. It is illegal to be naked short in excess of float except for market makers who have to take the other side of a trade.
2. It was not the market makers who were naked short. It could be in theory, but not in this case, at least not yet.
3. Hedge funds wanted to short and they have to borrow stocks to do so.
4. The hedge funds get those shares from somewhere. Where? The brokerages and the market makers such as Goldman Sachs.
5. It should be the responsibility of the brokerages and market makes to not let hedge funds get 140% short. But they did, and I believe on purpose.
6. Since the public cannot be 140% long, except via options, who was effectively long the other 40% of the shares?
7. The brokerages and the market makers. To get even more shares for themselves, they restricted trading.
8. So while these Redditt traders did well, the market makers also gained immensely on the meteoric rise. The more the merrier. They screwed the hedge funds big time and purposely so.
9. A side artifact of points #1 and #2 is when the shorts are all squeezed out the market makers are the only ones who are short.
10. When that happens, the bids plunge and the market makers cover lower. 

Rule #1 The Casino Always Wins

The market makers benefit on the meteoric rise. They will be the big winners in the collapse that's about to happen.

Rehypothecation Role in Naked Shorting

The result is still naked shorting.

You just described a mechanism as to how it happens. https://t.co/XUsbTk9sub

— Mike "Mish" Shedlock (@MishGEA) January 30, 2021

If someone borrowed them, shorted them, then were fools enough to lend them again, did they deserve to blow up?

Why aren't shorted shares marked as unlendable? Or are they?

Regardless, who is managing the trade?

Why aren't they watching short interest? https://t.co/bsChGX7s9G

— Mike "Mish" Shedlock (@MishGEA) January 31, 2021

Was Robin Hood manipulated into trading restrictions by Hedge Funds or the Market Makers?https://t.co/fjOztF3hLb https://t.co/AE8YoEgfZA

— Mike "Mish" Shedlock (@MishGEA) January 31, 2021

Over and Over

Times Square Billboard 

The New York Post notes Defiant Redditors buy Times Square Billboard as GameStop Stock Saga Rages.

“$GME GO BRRR,” blared a digital ad on the corner of 54th and Broadway in Manhattan. The ad ran for an hour on Friday and was a creation of digital billboard maker Matei Psatta. 

The line refers to a popular internet meme that uses “Brrr” to signify the sound a money-printing machine makes. GME is the stock’s ticker symbol on the NY Stock Exchange.

Congressional Hearings Loom

Fox Business reports Robinhood hiring 'federal affairs manager' as congressional hearings on GameStop scandal loom.

If Congress wants to Investigate something, I suggest starting with my 10-point scenario and Rule #1. 

Book Already Out

Movie Coming Up

The book on the World's Biggest Casino is already out . I confidently predict the movie is coming up.

Two main characters are ready identified. Vlad Tenev the founder/CEO of Robinhood and DeepF&ckingValue the 30 year old engineer in Boston on the WallStreetBets side. 

The CEO and the CIO (the villains) at the Melvin and Citadel hedge funds will be part of the main cast members. 

Those who produced “The Big Short” will handle this one the same way.