zdreg
Registered: Oct 2003
Posts: 8343 |
04-28-12 02:37 PM
Quote from rmorse:
I believe that option market makers are except from getting a locate on hard to borrow securities but are not except from the short sale rules in case a plus tic is required.
Bob
Question 4.7: Market makers, as defined in Section 3(a)(38) of the Exchange Act, include block positioners. Regulation SHO provides an exception to the locate requirement for market makers. Are all block positioners excepted from the locate requirement?
Answer: Rule 203(b)(2)(iii) provides an exception from the locate requirement for short sales effected by market makers, but only in connection with bona-fide market making activities. Rule 203(c)(1) provides that the term “market maker” has the same meaning as in Section 3(a)(38) of the Exchange Act, which defines “market maker” as “any specialist permitted to act as a dealer, any dealer acting in the capacity of a block positioner, and any dealer that, with respect to a security, holds itself out (by entering quotations in an inter-dealer communications system or otherwise) as being willing to buy and sell such security for its own account on a regular or continuous basis.”
The term “block positioner” is not defined in Regulation SHO or the Exchange Act. However, for purposes of Regulation SHO, the Staff interprets this term to have the same meaning as in Rule 3b-8(c) of the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.3b-8(c)), which defines a “qualified block positioner” as a dealer that: (1) is a broker or dealer registered pursuant to Section 15 of the Exchange Act; (2) is subject to and in compliance with Rule 15c3-1 of the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.15c3-1); (3) has and maintains minimum net capital, as defined in Rule 15c3-1, of $1,000,000; and (4) except when such activity is unlawful, meets all of the following conditions: (i) engages in the activity of purchasing long or selling short, from time to time, from or to a customer (other than a partner or a joint venture or other entity in which a partner, the dealer, or a person associated with such dealer, as defined in Section 3(a)(18) of the Exchange Act, participates) a block of stock with a current market value of $200,000 or more in a single transaction, or in several transactions at approximately the same time, from a single source to facilitate a sale or purchase by such customer, (ii) has determined in the exercise of reasonable diligence that the block could not be sold to or purchased from others on equivalent or better terms, and (iii) sells the shares comprising the block as rapidly as possible commensurate with the circumstances.
Therefore, block positioners may rely on the exception to the locate requirement in connection with bona-fide block positioning activities.
Question 4.8: What constitutes “bona-fide market making activities?”
Answer: The term “bona-fide market making” refers to bona-fide activities described in Section 3(a)(38) of the Exchange Act. Whether activity is “bona-fide” will depend on the facts and circumstances of the particular activity. However, the Adopting Release sets forth examples of activities that would not be considered to be “bona-fide market making activities.” (69 FR at 48015).
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