tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-116385102011-09-05T04:29:45.641-07:00This blog is dedicated to Bob O'Brien's Sanity Check editorials, and discussions about the SEC, failing to deliver/naked shorting, etc. It has mainly been created so that my many detractors and fans can tell me that I am full of it, correct my mistakes, rant and rave, kowtow, preen, or whatever seems appropriate. The only sins are being boring, or inarticulate, or dim. In order to submit comments you will need to register, which is relatively painless.bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.comBlogger831100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1136420841804204472006-01-04T16:07:00.000-08:002006-01-04T16:27:21.863-08:00

A new website that acts as a portal/aggregator for naked short selling/market manipulation issues, titled www.TheSanityCheck.com is now live.All future Bob O'Brien Sanity Check editorials will appear at that new website, which also features podcasts, blogs by Mark Faulk, Dave Patch, Bud Burrell, and a host of others, content from a variety of sources, required reading documents and studies, etc.

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1136299479639172422006-01-03T06:43:00.000-08:002006-01-03T16:46:07.056-08:00

(NOTE - The Newest 4th Interview With Bob O'Brien is Now Available (scroll down to the lower part of the screen on the right, and select January 3, 2006). It covers everything from Jim Cramer to OSTK to REFCO to the DTCC to the SEC to systemic collapse.) Dr. Patrick Byrne of OSTK has finished the second installment of his groundbreaking, "Dark Side Of The Looking Glass" animated slide-show

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1135125720771157972005-12-20T16:38:00.000-08:002005-12-23T16:15:06.726-08:00

Note: Day 3 (Dec. 23) Interview should be up by 7:30 ESTI completed a series of interviews on CFRN today, and if you want to hear the Easter Bunny go off about everything from the SEC to the history of Wall Street to comparisons to the S&L crisis to an in-depth description of the clearing and settlement system to a breakdown of the Byrne email exchange to a blow by blow dissertation on the scope

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com48tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1134859734238990042005-12-17T13:09:00.000-08:002005-12-18T16:16:15.006-08:00

A while ago I wrote, "We definitely aren't in Kansas anymore - can this get any weirder?"It just did.In quantum physics, there is an expression used when an experiment is successfully concluded, and all possible outcomes are eliminated, leaving only the 100% manifest event: "The waveform has collapsed."The universe of possible outcomes is reduced to one, Heisenberg uncertainty is removed, and

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com113tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1134801960763724192005-12-16T22:27:00.000-08:002005-12-17T11:01:58.210-08:00

Dr. Patrick Byrne of OSTK did a one and a half hour interview on CFRN today, and it is one of the more powerful pieces I've heard him do.He speaks frankly about the lawsuit, naked short selling, Wall Street, captured regulators, international crime syndicates, you name it.He discusses the tactic of demonizing those critical of Wall Street, and the frustration of his adversaries at his lack of

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1134506466525547992005-12-13T12:15:00.000-08:002005-12-13T17:17:27.536-08:00

Today, a federal appeals court rejected the NASD's challenge to the SEC, in the case of Anthony Elgindy.Here is the quote from the news piece breaking the story:"NASD in March 2000 accused Elgindy of manipulative short selling in Saf T Lok shares over several weeks in 1997. In May 2003, an NASD adjudication committee barred Elgindy from the securities business, banished Key West Securities from

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1134173781221300372005-12-09T15:58:00.000-08:002005-12-12T17:38:58.780-08:00

What would you say if your lawyer quit, after he had been telling everyone what a fine upstanding lad you were, and how you were as honest as the day is long, and how you were being victimized by a harsh society that didn't understand your motives nor actions?That is sort of the question Gradient must be asking today.I just got word that Gradient's attorneys, Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale &

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com57tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1134167883778886542005-12-09T14:00:00.000-08:002005-12-09T14:42:11.916-08:00

Dave Patch of Investigatethesec.com was talking about the new proposed rule for de-materializing proxies and having them distributed via the Internet, which I think is an excellent idea, and he made the observation that this represented an interesting opportunity to bring the voting fraud issue to the forefront of the discussion - namely, the fraud that occurs when FTDs, or shares loaned from

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1134004826872732892005-12-07T17:18:00.000-08:002005-12-07T17:55:45.373-08:00

The transcript for segment number two of Dr. Byrne's interview on Businessjive.com can be downloaded at http://www.ncans.net/news.htm on the news page. A great piece.

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1133930215981039852005-12-06T20:16:00.000-08:002005-12-06T20:50:56.516-08:00

I received an intriguing slide-show today from a friend who enjoys doing statistical analysis on stocks - some people knit their dogs sweaters, others assemble model planes, this guy enjoys applying his acumen to the stock market.The result of the slide-show, to cut to the chase, is that someone appears to be passing the fails between brokers or accounts every 13 trading days on the most visibly

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1133890791247918992005-12-06T09:38:00.000-08:002005-12-06T09:39:51.276-08:00

On the News Page. A stunning read. www.ncans.net/news.htm - check it out.

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1133765294056480312005-12-04T21:45:00.000-08:002005-12-06T10:31:57.593-08:00

It's really rather remarkable how complete the silence is from the media on the recent NASAA meeting.Even more incredible is the total lack of acknowledgment from the rest of the media of the Time Magazine piece covering the naked short selling topic.Now, you would think that we would have learned from the S&L crisis and the manner in which our regulators, lawmakers, politicos and press pretended

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1133713626610792832005-12-04T08:17:00.000-08:002005-12-04T09:23:10.416-08:00

An Internet-based executive profile site has a marvelous two part interview with Dr. Patrick Byrne of OSTK just released, and it is also a must listen.Of note is part two, where he discusses the naked short selling/Fraudulent Stock Trading problem in considerable detail, and provides illumination on his motives, and his inside knowledge of the workings of Wall Street.Your's truly, the Easter

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1133504835956347342005-12-01T21:44:00.000-08:002005-12-02T20:56:43.700-08:00

The following two links will download two radio broadcasts that are the most significant commentaries on the naked short selling situation to date. Here is the first - A must listen radio interview with industry consultant Bud Burrell - he describes the scope of the problem as multi-trillion dollar fraud - larger than all other American frauds combined. And here is today's show, which concludes

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1133386089473617782005-11-30T12:04:00.000-08:002005-12-01T07:32:11.930-08:00

(NOTE: This morning, everyone's favorite hedge fund friendly/SEC apologist "journalist" Carol Remond wrote the expected 800 words of dreck we expect from her, and which was accurately predicted here. In the piece, which isn't worth sullying these pages with, she simultaneously ignores the 1.95 hours of input from the panel, and simply repeats the SEC's and NASD's "all is well" message. She spends

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1133234803473328632005-11-28T17:52:00.000-08:002005-11-30T09:14:12.863-08:00

Normally, I write the Sanity Check editorials that appear at this blog. Occasionally, something comes to my attention that I feel is so significant that I elect to post it here - and Dr. Byrne of OSTK's comments from the Motley Fool message board today qualify for that distinction, in spades. In the following message, he addresses the requests for "proof" of the assertion that there is likely an

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1132338328066143702005-11-23T10:44:00.000-08:002005-11-24T22:00:46.826-08:00

Update: A new Section has been added at the end of this entry and to the downloadable revisions - a list of proposed solutions has been included.----------------Tune in for the NASAA conference via live webcast at http://www.videonewswire.com/event.asp?id=31468 On Wed, November 30, 2005. From 1PM to 3PM, Eastern Standard Time.-------------------(Note: If this letter resonates with you, I would

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1132641441302418892005-11-21T21:31:00.000-08:002005-11-22T11:34:06.626-08:00

(NOTE: This Just In. * SEC Probes Research Tied To Naked Shorting: Report * The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating a financial research firm over allegations it conspired with a hedge fund to drive down the share prices of online retailer Overstock.com, according to a published report. http://www.seclawbulletin.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=4552 Interested parties can sign up

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1132536617941033212005-11-20T21:38:00.000-08:002005-11-20T21:39:07.640-08:00

Bad Men Doing Bad ThingsThe Overstock lawsuit is heating up, as Friday's revelation that the SEC is investigating the defendants (see the immediately preceding Sanity Check) was followed by the Easter Bunny's coming into possession of a document wherein the Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Legal, of Overstock.com, makes a formal demand of a gentleman by the name of E. Rhead Richards

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1129525253673942742005-11-18T16:30:00.000-08:002005-11-19T09:01:35.643-08:00

The big news today is that Gradient Analytics is apparently being investigated by the SEC, in conjunction with the OSTK lawsuit, and the associated affidavits (available for perusal at the OSTK website).As an aside, Rocker Partners’ attorney has indicate that the statements contained in those affidavits and the suit itself are vicious smears against his clients’ allegedly good name, and as such

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1132210352148062172005-11-16T22:11:00.000-08:002005-11-17T09:26:25.100-08:00

In a frankly perplexing turn of events today, the ever-industrious Carol Remond wrote an article about Gradient and Rocker Partners' response to the OSTK lawsuit (which accuses them of unfair business practices, doctoring supposedly unbiased research reports to make them as negative as possible, front-running those research reports, and other related and presumably illegal activities).Rocker

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1132009180196689782005-11-14T12:41:00.000-08:002005-11-16T13:38:45.540-08:00

I have been asked to create a "viral" email (NOTE: Viral refers to its ability to propagate in a logarithmic fashion, not to its containing any sort of virus) which can be used to raise awareness of the Naked Short Selling/Fail To Deliver crisis. A poster on the NFI message boards created a good model. I have taken the spirit of his email and used it to create my own. The art is in offering

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1131832717414375452005-11-12T10:22:00.000-08:002005-11-12T17:33:48.433-08:00

From Yesterday's Headlines:"Investors Top Priority for S.E.C., Chief Says By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSNovember 12, 2005WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 (AP) - The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission told a Wall Street audience on Friday that the agency would be sympathetic to complaints about overly burdensome regulation but that it would continue to put investor protection first. Christopher Cox,

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1131414481983985062005-11-07T17:20:00.000-08:002005-11-08T10:13:20.653-08:00

Today, Time Magazine, arguably one of the most venerated publications in the world, ran a groundbreaking article on Naked Short Selling/Failing to Deliver.The reason this is noteworthy is because it represents the first time that the mainstream media has done a fair, balanced, factual article on the practice.What I mean by the mainstream media is a large, respected publication not generally

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1131119739389515282005-11-04T07:42:00.000-08:002005-11-04T08:26:53.510-08:00

I had an interesting email from one of the more authoritative sources on the FTD and Reg SHO situation, and he introduced a possible explanation for the SEC's grandfathering provision of all past FTD's, in violation of their congressional mandate under Rule 17A.Any attorneys out there, feel free to chime in on this - I'm not a lawyer, and don't even play one on TV.And I also don't support nor

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1130974904733509082005-11-02T14:48:00.000-08:002005-11-03T07:57:01.390-08:00

Folks, it couldn't get any weirder.I was talking with our friend Dr. Byrne, and he told me a story that defies imagination. I honestly thought he was pulling my leg - had one of those double take moments, where you have to shake your head to confirm you're awake. Before I tell you the gist of this, let me send out a little tidbit to any regulators reading this - I urge you to contact Dr. Byrne

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1130915984598629252005-11-01T22:29:00.000-08:002005-11-02T17:48:31.170-08:00

Bethany McLean of Fortune wrote a nice Type "B" piece on Monday about Dr. Byrne of Overstock.com.For those who haven't been following this, there are two types of basic articles which appear in the financial press about OSTK and Dr. Byrne - Type "A", and Type "B".Type "A" articles are balanced, fair pieces which examine the evidence in the OSTK lawsuit -sworn statements alleging illegal

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1130344216247594722005-10-26T09:17:00.000-07:002005-10-26T15:56:51.326-07:00

(Note: When this was first published late at night two days ago, I had bounced the $10.5 billion liability marked Securities Sold But Not Yet Purchased off a few savvy folks, and first pass was that it was likely partially FTD's. Upon reviewing the prior filings, it became obvious that it was neither mostly FTD's, nor mostly legitimate short sales - both takes were incorrect. The prior filings

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1129836330702062552005-10-20T12:00:00.000-07:002005-10-21T14:09:30.016-07:00

I've been asked a number of times over the last week to come up with a one-stop shop where interested readers could learn enough about the naked short selling crisis to be dangerous. It isn't an editorial so much as it is the intro to a chapter in the book I am working on, thus it has been moved to a more appropriate place than the Sanity Check op-ed blog.The piece has been made a permanent part

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1129681913195244122005-10-18T14:50:00.000-07:002005-10-18T18:57:19.523-07:00

Of late, my little commentaries and vignettes have been attracting a fair degree of attention, and I've been getting an increasing amount of email asking what I think is going to happen - how all this is likely to end.Before I offer my cheery view, let me ask some questions, the likes of which were first asked in this column in March of 2005.1) REFCO has significant contingent liabilities of

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com51tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1129564298138097612005-10-17T08:43:00.000-07:002005-10-17T22:12:20.063-07:00

A Streetcar Named REFCO(NOTE: REFCO just filed for bankruptcy protection, this evening, 12 hours after this editorial was written. No statement has been made as to the nature of the debt that caused this blowup. No indication has been made that the public will ever find out what the debt consisted of - the cone of silence has descended, apparently, and few in the mainstream media are asking "what

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1129321521642342872005-10-14T13:03:00.000-07:002005-10-17T08:33:23.536-07:00

(NOTE: See the comments section for this piece for Dr. Byrne's correspondence with Herb. Very genuinely funny stuff. Speaks for itself. If only we could get Herb and Matthews into a wrestling ring, maybe some mud, and have them take on Patrick and Patch in a tag team...now that would be something you could sell seats to. There would of course have to be rules against inappropriate touching and

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1129307831486050852005-10-14T08:31:00.000-07:002005-10-14T10:57:31.416-07:00

REFCO is apparently shuttering its offshore operations, obviously because now that it has had to fess up to its massive contingent liability, which it had shunted off to a special purpose entity to get the liability off-balance-sheet, it is essentially insolvent. That's my bet.From a Newsday article today comes a hint of things to come: "In addition, the company's credit ratings were slashed,

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1129253676399368512005-10-13T16:22:00.000-07:002005-10-14T09:46:31.563-07:00

[NOTE: I hit the wrong setting for replies when publishing this, and it prevented anyone from using that function. That has been fixed, and registered users can comment away. I have limited it to registered users as I've had to delete a few nuisance posts from trolls, and life is too short to have to deal with that. To register, all you have to do is go through the 45 second process - painless,

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1129043917941999142005-10-11T07:00:00.000-07:002005-10-14T17:00:31.630-07:00

What if the US market system was so badly broken, so wildly compromised, that the very basic premise of an auction system was shown to be a hollow farce, an artifice designed to lure investors into a system wherein wholesale larceny, counterfeiting, fraud, collusion, corruption at a scale so pervasive that it jeopardizes the entire premise of the markets, was the reality and the norm, not some

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com39tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1128829848944703642005-10-08T20:23:00.000-07:002005-10-08T20:50:48.966-07:00

Usually Sanity Check is my bully pulpit, from which I pontificate, complain, berate, and mock.Especially mock. Nothing drives powerful forces up to no good crazier than being mocked. It is almost as though once you have the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, the next must have is the awe and respect of a breathless public. And when a fun-filled rodent mocks you, or shines a light on your

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1128449348743499182005-10-04T10:28:00.000-07:002005-10-04T11:11:46.493-07:00

I just got finished reading the October 1, 2005 edition of the PIPEs Report, and its summary and dissection of the infamous OSTK affidavits, which are apparently a big part of the evidence against Gradient Analytics and Rocker Partners.Now, I may not know much about SEC regs or even fair business practices, but I do know that if the charges being leveled in the sworn testimony are true, that some

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1127455798341805822005-09-22T22:06:00.000-07:002005-09-22T23:09:58.366-07:00

There's a new message board at www.NCANS.net/info that has been created as a central repository of information regarding the FTD scandal.One of the NCANS webmasters created it, and hats off. Bravo. Well worth checking in and taking a look. I suspect that this will become one of the must stop at places for the regulators to get a pulse on the issues. I would encourage one and all to go there and

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1127083498937663642005-09-18T16:32:00.000-07:002005-09-18T21:43:03.213-07:00

Apparently Bill Alpert of Barron's, untroubled by the recent Bayou hedge fund explosion, or any of the other naked short selling related news, has written another snarky piece in which he repeats the NY Post's speculations as to my identity, and then goes on to link that speculated identity with a religious website. I'm not going to waste a whole lot of time here on the absurdity of all this, but

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1126717201775459202005-09-14T09:55:00.000-07:002005-09-15T17:53:25.360-07:00

I’ve been reading an outstanding history of the 1980’s S&L debacle, the appropriately named In$ide Job, by Pizzo, Fricker and Muolo. There are more than a few striking similarities between the disaster it chronicles, and the current topic of NCANS’ and my attention – hedge funds, and the abuse of the system that FTDs and associated market manipulation represent.First and foremost, what is obvious

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1126058322729112082005-09-06T18:42:00.000-07:002005-09-07T08:38:09.836-07:00

I've been thinking about the whole ugly clearing and settlement system and resultant FTD mess, and the DTCC and SEC's culpability in the matter, and Reg SHO, and abusive naked short selling as part of a stock manipulation strategy, and after having been on vacation for a week, I can honestly say that I believe I have some clarity.First, a recap. The SEC initiated Regulation SHO in January of 2005

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1124773374439513852005-08-23T08:19:00.000-07:002005-09-13T21:46:14.753-07:00

Today's New York Post article was interesting to me, in the sense that it spent a lot of time focusing on the pressing question of Who's Bob O'Brien, and zero on whether it is even possible, just possible, that Dr. Byrne is correct in his allegations about a conspiracy of hedge funds, the media, class action suits, billionaire financiers, and shadowy master minds.Tut tut. There will be none of

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1124501035310699002005-08-19T15:23:00.000-07:002005-08-22T09:23:47.953-07:00

[UPDATE] The reporter, Roddy Boyd, was kind enough to email me and give me a head's up that the article will run Tuesday. I pointed out that I hoped he had contacted all the players in the drama, as that would be basic diligence. I also pointed out that I found the timing wildly coincidental as it sure appeared that this was being done for no other reason than to provide Rocker's attorneys with a

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1124393401976439642005-08-18T11:49:00.000-07:002005-08-22T15:10:52.013-07:00

A news release today indicated that David Rocker is going to counter-sue Overstock.com, and Dr. Patrick Byrne, and Mary Helburn, and everyone and anyone connected to the suit or the company.Standard Operating Procedure.Now here is where it gets interesting. The press release also indicates that he intends to sue Bob O'Brien, and presumably others that have taken the position that something stinks

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1124305932936009662005-08-17T11:55:00.000-07:002005-08-17T19:16:44.720-07:00

."...and I don't know how to naked short."That's rich.Really.Maybe Jeff should change his tagline to read "I don't know anything about any of that."--------------------------On CNBC today, Jeff Matthews, who calls VP's strippers when they aren't and gets much wrong (or makes things up), said that he's been in the business for 25 years, and that he doesn't know how to naked short.Huh.Apparently

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1124167195600475952005-08-15T20:10:00.000-07:002005-08-16T08:44:06.176-07:00

NEW SECTION - This morning, Mr. Matthews amended his blog and struck his false and misleading accusation that Ms. Simon was an "exotic dancer", after running it for 3 days and being cited as a credible commentator by national media (all of course those highly critical of Overstock). No apology was issued for the protracted libel campaign, nor any explanation as to why it took me exposing his "

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1123857222696849472005-08-12T07:27:00.000-07:002005-08-19T12:24:26.400-07:00

The names articulated in the schematic Dr. Byrne presented are incredible, a veritable who’s who of the hedge fund world and Wall Street:David Rocker. Leon Black. Tom Barton. Marc Cohodes. David Einhorn. Jim Cramer. Kroll. Barron's. The WSJ.And at the bottom of it all, a Master Mind. Some on the Yahoo boards have a speculation, which seems credible to me. Check out this post. If true, this is the

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1123801354256956872005-08-11T15:53:00.000-07:002005-08-11T17:50:27.820-07:00

.Better Than American Idol, More Action Than Fear Factor…This afternoon, shareholders of Overstock.com, along with the company, filed a groundbreaking suit against Rocker Partners, David Rocker, Marc Cohodes, Gradient Analytics (AKA Camelback), Donn Vickrey, and several other defendants in California State Court, alleging unfair business practices, and conspiring to denigrate Overstock.com's

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1123285242704589262005-08-05T16:28:00.000-07:002005-08-05T17:50:30.576-07:00

Sometimes I feel like Karnak the Magnificent, holding an envelope up to my head and guessing the contents.On the January Ovestock.com conference call I made a series of predictions associated with a coordinated manipulation of their share price. I also outlined the anatomy of a manipulation, and broke it down into its components. As a refresher, here are the central elements:Part One1) Short

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1123222553231553482005-08-04T22:42:00.000-07:002005-08-05T13:02:55.763-07:00

Just a short postscript to yesterday's OSTK CC, which has been met with absolutely deafening silence by virtually every media source and market commentator on the planet.During the call, Dr. Byrne spent a good 20 minutes spelling out in exquisite detail how the numbers work out so that there are likely no more than 300K or so shares that aren't owned by a Byrne, the wife of a Byrne, or someone a

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1123106628932790022005-08-03T13:35:00.000-07:002005-08-03T15:10:40.446-07:00

Dr. Byrne had a good conference call today. Especially towards the end, when he started doing the math on the number of shares that were owned by his family, friends, and institutions. The way the math works out is that all but about 300K shares issued are owned by these folks.That is insane.300K shares legitimately issued by the company, insiders and family who aren't trading or selling, and

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1122863341506691962005-07-31T19:21:00.000-07:002005-07-31T21:30:55.976-07:00

Well, I just saw the long anticipated Dateline piece, two plus years in the making, wherein the DTCC stock borrow program and its creation of electronic counterfeit shares (which are treated as legitimate shares by the system), the abuse of loopholes by unscrupulous and powerful hedge funds, the SEC’s Regulation SHO and its lack of teeth, and the SEC’s complete lack of any real enforcement of

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1122595020494552752005-07-28T16:37:00.000-07:002005-07-28T17:01:45.266-07:00

Yup.You read it right.Our securities regulator is now on record, indicating that they chose sides when they created Regulation SHO, and the side they chose was protecting the naked short sellers, rather than the investing public.You can see this admission memorialized at this site.In the document, you will find them admitting clearly that they were concerned about creating short squeezes, thereby

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1122418616336276452005-07-26T15:26:00.000-07:002005-07-26T16:43:51.060-07:00

So, a funny article ran today. Not really ha ha funny. More "can it get any worse" funny. It was in today's CNN/Money, and the title says it all:Ex-SEC aide involved in fund scandal?Report: Derby profited from hedge fund accused of fleecing investors of millions of dollars.Now, for starters, it wasn't an aide. We are talking about the Managing Executive for Operations for the SEC. Not some

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1122095287582293132005-07-22T21:50:00.000-07:002005-07-25T13:28:29.763-07:00

Today, Annette Nazareth was nominated for one of the two available Chairperson seats at the SEC.Annette, as you may or may not be aware of, is married to one of the New York Fed Governors - you know, one of the guys who runs the system of which the DTCC is a part - the privately owned Federal Reserve Banking System (whose Federal Reserve banks are all privately owned). For anyone that doesn't

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1121838827511186072005-07-19T22:24:00.000-07:002005-07-19T22:53:47.530-07:00

About a week ago I posted a list at the NCANS site. It is a list, by day, of the number of Fail To Delivers since last March. The list was only for the NYSE and the NASDAQ, and was a partially complete response to a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request by one of our NCANS members. I say partially because it omitted the OTCBB and pink sheet stocks. But, we now understand how many shares are

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1120761340911765192005-07-07T11:09:00.000-07:002005-07-07T11:35:40.920-07:00

Today's deplorable and cowardly attack on innocents in London is an unfortunate reality in this day and age, where violence without any semblance of reason is the tactic employed by terrorists - as it has been for 40 years, during which time it has never resulted in any terrorist objective being met or any policy being changed. And yet the carnage continues.My observations have more to do with

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1120594618703423922005-07-05T13:03:00.000-07:002005-07-06T10:54:35.956-07:00

Mark Faulk, in one of his latest installments of The Faulking Truth, does a follow-up on the Global Links story - a saga that highlights the depth of the Fail To Deliver problem, and raises troubling questions about the role that the SEC and the DTCC are playing. His piece can be seen here. I note with wry amusement that the reporter he takes on as being one of the greatest disseminator of

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1120186253320790762005-06-30T18:53:00.000-07:002005-06-30T23:06:25.553-07:00

Some updates:1) The DTCC never responded to any of the scores of emails requesting clarity as to how the 82% of FTD's the Stock Borrow Program doesn't lend shares to are handled. Presumably those are the FTD's that stay on the record as FTD's. There really is only one way they could be handled - some sort of proxy is created (likely just a debit in the selling participant's account) for a real

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1119379672195872452005-06-21T10:56:00.000-07:002005-06-21T18:10:42.663-07:00

In Which The King of Money Laundering and Stingers Indicates I Am Under SurveillanceFor those who are enjoying the ongoing saga of "my" privacy being breached and the cartel of bad guys interested in doing me no good sustaining an ongoing campaign of intimidation and such, let's look at a post from the Yahoo message boards from today, by the poster widely believed to be none other than convicted

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1118452995101828592005-06-10T18:21:00.000-07:002005-06-10T20:41:56.446-07:00

In July of 2002, the short interest in NovaStar Financial (NYSE – NFI) went from basically nothing, into multiple millions, all within a period of 45 days or so. Investors at the time had no idea what was happening, as they watched the stock of a tiny MREIT go from the mid-$30’s to $20 or so – and many sold, as they were retirees who depend upon their nest eggs to support them, and REITs are

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1117936083482683672005-06-04T18:25:00.000-07:002005-06-04T18:48:03.506-07:00

Here’s the email exchange with Jesse Eisinger of the WSJ, which I agreed to keep private until his piece ran. For the record, I sent him an email advising him that our deal had expired, unless he could provide a satisfactory explanation for his familiarity with NCANS’ banking details as well as with phone records of a large donor to the cause. I have received no response, thus it is full

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1117825002706607812005-06-03T11:55:00.000-07:002005-06-03T17:46:10.193-07:00

Several days ago, I emailed and posted a list of questions, asking Mr. Jesse Eisinger whether he felt that felony breach of federal laws was acceptable behavior - and he's gone dark on me, except for the email at the end of this post.NEWS: I have sent Jesse an email indicating that if there is no satisfactory response as to how he is in posession of detailed bank and phone info by 8PM EST on June

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1117642919187318572005-06-01T09:18:00.000-07:002005-06-01T13:17:50.906-07:00

It seems like a good idea, actually - why not profile an ex-Thestreet.com writer who now works for a major pub, plays poker with hedge fund guys, and has invested a month of his time in profiling me, against my wishes? In fact, it will give him an opportunity to comment on the tactics employed during his little journey of pseudo-discovery, and provide a fun basis for any action brought against

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1117593098845939572005-05-31T19:04:00.000-07:002005-05-31T19:42:53.840-07:00

Is it Deep Throat? The breakdown of the financial system, as evidenced by the growing outcry against naked short selling and the flagrant flouting of the rules by the privileged, the rich, the "above the law"? Iraq continuing to claim lives, the rule of law abandoned? Nope.It's all about who's Bob O'Brien.A month later, and I am still getting long email threads from the reporter there who is

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1116625557441922152005-05-20T14:35:00.000-07:002005-05-21T15:24:36.580-07:00

Wonder why that is? Per the latest "rule" that the NSCC passed and which the SEC rubber stamped, the NSCC is shielded from damages arising from their violating Federal Securities Laws, or at least has limited its liability. I'm not making this up. At least that is what they'd like to have you believe. The fact is that the SEC doesn't have the right to grant to the NSCC/DTCC, a private company,

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1115620730575628832005-05-08T22:10:00.000-07:002005-05-09T08:39:02.016-07:00

In these turbulent times, it's all too often that we see arrogant blowhards going on and on about topics that strain the limits of their cognitive carapaces - the equivalent of Sean Penn in Team America. Not so the subject of Sunday's Barron's interview, Mr. Mark Cuban, ladies and gentleman, please, a big hand for the man, yessssss. Mark is possessed of a marvelous sense of whimsy and fun, a

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1115236426804523902005-05-04T12:44:00.000-07:002005-05-05T14:34:51.020-07:00

The following is an email exchange that took place on the morning of May 4, from a reporter at the WSJ who is reportedly (no pun intended) doing a piece on "Who's Bob O'Brien" - per a source close to the Journal. In that piece, I have been told that this former TSCM reporter is attempting to connect me with the company through some byzantine twisting and turning. That's kind of hard, given that I

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1115072201178088292005-05-02T14:20:00.000-07:002005-05-02T22:38:08.126-07:00

After reading the latest Reuters article, I can make a few observations:1) An awful lot of energy has gone into demonizing me, by all the usual suspects - pet reporters at Barrons who are more than acquaintances with Marc and the Lapdog. Reuters. What's next? I can't believe we haven't seen lapdog or WSJ pieces yet, or AP from Carol Remond. Those are always the usual suspects, so I can make a

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1115012031225529522005-05-01T21:16:00.000-07:002005-05-02T22:53:25.640-07:00

I had some time to lay out in the sun this weekend, think about things, contemplate the meaning of life, and notions like ethics, of right and wrong, and such. I thought about the difference between what you could do, and what you should do. And I realized that I had crossed an ethical line when I posted Marc's address on the Yahoo boards.Perhaps it was a simmering disgust with the posters who

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1114916229831677622005-04-30T18:41:00.000-07:002006-01-07T13:46:42.456-08:00

A recent email exchange was memorialized wherein one of the senior editors at Barrons, a fellow by the name of Bill Alpert, grilled me about a series of posts on the Yahoo NFI message boards. In them, Marc Cohodes of Rocker Partner's address was posted, along with an inquiry about his wife and son, and the aviso that the time of hedge fund manipulation was fast coming to a close as their game

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1114187409092292012005-04-22T09:28:00.000-07:002005-04-23T17:55:31.413-07:00

.Update: There's now a powerpoint presentation of my best take of how the stock borrow/FTD process works now up at NCANS. It is an approximation for your amusement and tittilation. Hope everyone enjoys it.I called the DTCC today. Also emailed them. My question was simple – what happens to the 82% of the fail to delivers that the stock borrow program doesn’t satisfy?I figured that isn’t asking the

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1113938787991091042005-04-19T12:15:00.000-07:002005-04-19T12:57:45.453-07:00

That is the question that occurred to me as I read the stellar letter responding to Mr. Thompson of the DTCC by Robert Shapiro, the former U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs. In it, Shapiro basically points out that Thompson is twisting, distorting, mis-stating, selectively omitting, obfuscating, telling tall tales, spinning yarns, telling fish stories, and so on.See the whole

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1113166259043726072005-04-10T13:41:00.000-07:002005-04-11T22:51:36.366-07:00

.You enter through the brightly illuminated double-doors, and enter a land of limitless possibility - lights blink, bells chime, coins hit their attendant cups with a jingle, comely hostesses offer free drinks, everyone is a winner. Smiling, laughing faces of preternaturally beautiful people beam at us from placards and signage, assuring us that we are all victors, as they were in the genetic

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1112976756050820472005-04-08T09:11:00.000-07:002005-04-10T14:16:10.506-07:00

.Dear Mr. Thompson:I am again writing to you in the hope that you will take a moment to help me understand where I went wrong. It is important to me personally as well as to my organization, the National Coalition Against Naked Short Selling, to apprehend where our reasoning went awry.In your recent @DTCC “interview” of March 5 you made a number of comments that would lead the reader to believe

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1112832919541434702005-04-06T17:09:00.000-07:002005-04-08T09:10:51.490-07:00

Well, the Dateline story has been shelved, at least for now. You will note that I stayed away from the tossing of hats in the air on that one when we were assured that it would run. The reason is simple - I am not convinced that NBC or any network will have an interest in running a story that blows this wide open. The money is too big. The interests are too big. And it would run counter to my

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1112549810046994722005-04-03T10:00:00.000-07:002005-04-03T17:27:24.936-07:00

What if you were the member of an elite regulatory team, that, well, for lack of a better term, had to lie to your employer to hide a large and growing problem?Would that be OK, you think? Is it OK to perjure yourself to avoid having to admit to something being badly wrong? Or at least deliberately mislead your boss?I took a little trip down memory lane this morning, and discovered what I

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1112378710471685542005-04-01T09:54:00.000-08:002005-04-02T22:24:13.090-08:00

The following represents an email I sent to Mr. Thompson at the DTCC 4 business days ago. I have not received a response. Now, it is one thing to blather on about how everyone is lying about your stock borrow program, but it is another to go on record saying specifically how and where they are in error. I have invited Mr. Thompson to do so, and thusfar he has been conspicuous in his silence. Here

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1112223730544631732005-03-30T13:36:00.000-08:002005-03-30T17:26:23.593-08:00

Do I seem a little testy? A little jittery? On edge? Maybe a tad out of sorts? Try this quote from the March 25 issue of Euromoney, a respected periodical from Europe that just released a stunningly complete assessment of the fail to deliver phenomena and the SEC's shocking lack of interest in enforcing any of the laws designed to protect investors, and hence deciding to grandfather in all fails

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1111787797211934852005-03-25T13:44:00.000-08:002005-03-25T17:04:36.003-08:00

Anyone that hasn't seen it should go to http://tinyurl.com/5vq8y and check out the news piece that features among others Dr. Patrick Byrne of Overstock.com, Dr. James Angel, one of the foremost authorities on the capital markets, and Bob O'Brien - the protagonist in this little unfolding drama.The piece has been called an infomercial by some. Not so. Commercials are paid advertising. You pay to

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1111714034914090322005-03-24T17:23:00.000-08:002005-03-24T17:29:33.046-08:00

I’ve written a lot lately about the shenanigans that are part and parcel of our equity markets, and how the current ghost in the machine appears uniquely predisposed to favoring the companies that derive their income from handing our money. I’ve speculated about how the Depository Trust Clearing Corporation (DTCC) abuses the public trust in order to effectively counterfeit shares of publicly

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1111559015873785372005-03-22T22:22:00.000-08:002005-03-22T22:23:35.876-08:00

I was doing some light reading the other night, browsing through some of my favorite publicly traded brokerages' 10K's, when I was struck by an amazing omission.I couldn’t believe my eyes, so I called some of my accountant and attorney friends to verify that I was reading them correctly.I was.First, the ground rules: publicly traded companies are required to disclose to their shareholders all

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11638510.post-1111558460893872202005-03-22T22:05:00.000-08:002005-03-22T22:21:51.903-08:00

Well, I've been resistant to the idea of creating my own blog, but since everyone and their brother seems to have gotten into the blogging mood, I figure I might as well offer my fans and detractors an opportunity to vent. The intention is to encourage discussion about the various topics on the www.NCANS.net site, specifically the Sanity Check editorials. Rather than hearing several dozen people

bob obrienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11057774605264465111noreply@blogger.com3