The SEC alleges that Left and Citron committed fraud and made illegal profits. Citron Research recently announced they were short Gamestop, $GME, in a post on X. Citron Research went short of Gamestop, $GME, 2 different times including 2021 and 2024. The SEC claims Left would sell his shorts immediately after posting that he was short. They claim this is manipulation.
I do not understand how the SEC can hold Andrew accountable for anything... I believe he would be covered under free speech just like a journalist... He is not a licensed broker or money manager so he is not under the regulations of the SEC or FNRA...
Citron shorted because GME shot up dramatically after Roaring Kitty announced his memes/investment in GME. But GME’s stock price moved dramatically, so it can make financial sense for Citron to close the short position quickly after Citron’s announcement of being short. If one is not allowed to do this, it would be a new practice, which means fewer people would dare to make trading recommendations when they themselves have a position, as they would then be locked in for a period.
His actions are a bit more than just talking about his trades on social media. “Left bragged to colleagues that some of these statements [he made] were especially effective at inducing retail investors to trade based on his recommendations and said that it was like taking‘candy from a baby,’ ” “Left coordinated with hedge funds to disseminate short reports and information to be posted on Twitter, coordinated with hedge funds regarding the timing of publication, and enabled the hedge funds to trade in the Targeted Securities before the reports were disseminated.” “In exchange for sharing his planned announcements with the hedge funds in advance of posting them publicly, the hedge funds paid defendant Left a portion of their trading profits,” the indictment says. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/26/short-seller-andrew-left-charged-with-fraud-by-prosecutors-sec.html
OH wait A minute!! if those allegations are proven to be true... then yeah.. He has a mucho Problemo... and I would be happy to see him pay. The SEC needs to TRY to keep this a level playing field for us little guys
This stuff happens 100 times a day. Just watch Bloomberg or MSN, or any media outlet. The banks and hedge funds use social media And news channels for their own benefit. When they have 100’s of thousands of lots to sell they say the market is gonna rally so they can sell at the best prices into buyers. The markets are so corrupt now. Banks support them no matter what the news. It’s about time their practices come under scrutiny. You can’t trade the news no more. Banks need much more regulation but no way in hell will governments do that. Banks run the world. And we all know how that works out. But you can’t always protect your positions, and that’s when they become over invested and boom. They can’t help themselves.
I’ve traded for over 30 years. And the markets have never been this irregular. Ever since it went computerised and they deregulated who could trade,it started turning for the worst, in my day you had to be a member for the SFA. New traders are clueless about selling. They seem only to have buy buttons, drummed into them by the banks, that’s a reason markets never over reach down no more. And before anyone says that’s a good thing it’s not, Because then the markets don't work as they should. And organisations now say stock markets do not reflect the economy, what a lot of tosh. There are a lot of companies out there that don’t even break even, yet their share prices are are scandalously high, those companies get funding via issuing stock and they are garbage, it makes no sense. The long standing rules of economics mean nothing, the strong and the weak survive now. That also affects a lot of data. Markets are now socialist, and at some stage it will get found out. It may not affect the Elites, but it does affect a lot of other very important economic data. Look Banks have always had control of the markets but they ran smooth because the rules of economics stood firm. Now they have Algos which have no fear I’ve seen Algo’s rip through massive downturns and turn then into frenzied buying days, it’s madness. Company stock prices are impossible to gauge because the data used to assess them is so misleading. And let’s not forget the once independent banks now all talk to each other that way no one gets hurt. My whole trading strategy has changed. You can’t speculate anymore because news and figures mean nothing. And banks know where people buy and sell. It’s not hard, if I show a fellow trader a chart and ask him where he would look to go long or short we would both probably pick the same places. So banks use that info really well, of course they did this in years gone past, but they were not flippant with it. I never go for long trades no more, on slow days I push my luck, but now it’s far more lucrative and safer to go for 10-20 ticks with much bigger size. And exit just before the next support or resistance level. Yes I lost money today. Selling into a bullish market because I was sure it would sell off, I traded like it was 1990 today. My bad.
yup... I saw data recently in the annual reports for the big banks,,, out of 252 trading days per year.. they all had less than 5 loosing days on their trading desks!! let that sink in..
It seems like a major stretch to say that merely publishing a bona fide opinion is “market manipulation”. The fact that he exited the positions partly or fully in advance of his “targets” is neither here nor there. I can see a justification if Left was knowingly spreading false or defamatory information, but this was not even alleged to be the case. We’re taking a dark turn if two-bit outfits publishing a bearish opinion is literally criminalized while an entire massive bullshit-generation industry is allowed to promote scams like crypto, the metaverse, and “AI” taking over the world, only to pump and dump on retail bag holders to the tune of billions…