12/19/2023 0 Comments Biggest short squeeze in history“It was mathematically impossible for every short-seller to buy a share, and therefore close their position. Short sales, meanwhile, had risen to 12% of total outstanding stock. It had cornered the majority of the float, leaving only 6% in free float. One weekend, Porsche announced its total holding in VW. What gave them confidence was that there was no news of Porsche continuing its purchase of VW ordinaries from the market but they were blindsided because it was buying cash-settled options instead. Sell the ordinaries and hedge by buying the preference shares. The hedge funds smelt an arbitrage opportunity. VolksWagen was in the process of being acquired by Porsche, and the premium of its ordinary shares had risen to extremely high levels compared to its preference shares. The squeeze played out right in the middle of the global financial crisis, but began as early as 1931, as mentioned in this summary by Jamie Powell of Financial Times. ![]() This will please the apes, because certain hedge funds took massive losses after shorting VW ordinary shares, after the firm became the most valued firm in the world in a brief wild period of trading. In the history of short squeezes, perhaps the most famous one is that of German automaker, VolksWagen, also known as VW. Saunders got a lot of sympathy at the time, since the sudden change in exchange rules seemed unfair not unlike some of the sympathy for the redditors whose short squeeze plans were hit after their trading options were squeezed by service providers such as Robinhood. “This resulted in eventual bankruptcy for Saunders and he was finally forced to step out of the Piggly Wiggly Company," says Brooks. ![]() “The stock went up wildly, reaching a high of $124," writes Brooks.īut just when it seemed that Sanders had single-handedly trumped Wall Street, “the Exchange suspended further trading & postponed the short sellers' delivery deadline." The short sellers managed to find shares for delivery, thanks to the extended deadlines. “Saunders began a buying campaign in New York, with an attempt to corner the floating stock of Piggly Wiggly shares. The story is captured in the chapter, The Last Great Corner in the book Business Adventures by John Brooks. The bear cartel sought to take advantage of the recent failures and started shorting the stock, besides spreading rumours about the firm. His retail business chain, Piggly Wiggly, was doing fine except for some failures at some franchisees. Note that the snakes went into the trade with return expectations of about 100% some of the apes were at one point sitting on paper profits of over 10,000%, but were still holding on to their positions.īut there has been a long history of market corners and short squeezes, years before the current battle between apes and snakes.Ībout a hundred years ago, in the US stock markets, a businessman by the name Clarence Saunders took a trip to New York with $10 million of borrowed funds to fight a bear cartel. The apes, meanwhile, are rallying the troops to hold on to their positions, so that others with short positions are squeezed and made to pay through their nose as well.
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