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The mechanism is simple. Publish some very good news (a fraudulent enterprise should have no difficulty manufacturing those), do buybacks, raise the share price

The mechanism is simple. Publish some very good news (a fraudulent enterprise should have no difficulty manufacturing those), do buybacks, raise the share price, get them margin called. For half the ZIRP era it was so easy to get shorts margin called (as it was done by people who had no business shorting), that shorts accidentally did it to themselves with by misusing options. Obviously overvalued companies were among the best investments imaginable (Beyond Meat, Kodak, Gamestop, etc.) As for the risk of brokers doing it, yes it's also real. But if you suspect foul play from your broker, you could move to a different brokerage. If you mistrust the exchange you trade trough a dark pool if you want to. Can you change your regulator?

chollida1 3y ago
> The mechanism is simple. Publish some very good news (a fraudulent enterprise should have no difficulty manufacturing those), do buybacks, raise the share price, get them margin called. Companies can do that right now without any of this data, the CAT consolidation does absolutely nothing to change this. So again, help me understand the concern you have about this new change.
- username332211 3y ago
  > Companies can do that right now without any of this data, the CAT consolidation does absolutely nothing to change this. But it's a lot easier to do if you can figure out at what price would the short get margin called, when are his options are going to expire, etc. What would normally require aggressive manipulation (like Musk's lies about a Tesla buyout offer), can become trivial, perhaps even undetectable.