Category: Ken Griffin (Page 1 of 6)

Citi, Goldman, Extend AMC’s Covenant Waiver to 2024: What it Means

CEO Adam Aron said Citi, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse have extended AMC’s covenant waiver to March 31st of 2024.

“This is a reflection of AMC’s recovery being well under way… a vote of confidence in AMC by our banks that we much welcome. Thank you Citi, Goldman, and Credit Suisse”, said AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) CEO Adam Aron in January of 2023.

So, what exactly is a covenant waiver extension and what does this mean for AMC Entertainment?

What is a Covenant Waiver?

A covenant waiver is when a lender temporarily forgives a borrower’s breach of a loan covenant.

In AMC’s case, the lenders are Citi, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse.

Debt covenants are restrictions that lenders (creditors, debt holders, investors) put on lending agreements to limit the actions of the borrower (debtor), AMC Entertainment.

In other words, debt covenants are agreements between a company (AMC) and its lenders (Citi, Goldman, Credit Suisse) that the company will operate within certain rules set by the lenders.

Should a borrower violate a covenant, such as not maintaining a certain interest coverage ratio or engaging in unpermitted business activities, it may constitute a loan default, per The Balance.

Financial Covenants Explained

Covenant requirements are conditions the borrower must regularly meet throughout the term to demonstrate their creditworthiness to the lender.

Lenders frequently use certain financial tests that serve as indicators of the borrower’s repayment ability.

Failure to meet these tests violates the covenant and constitutes loan default.

In AMC Entertainment’s case, lenders have waived, or forgiven AMC’s breach of contract, per their loan covenant and extended it to March 31st 2024.

What Does This Mean for AMC Entertainment?

AMC News Today.
AMC News today.

For AMC Entertainment, a covenant waiver will allow the business to run operations under its debt contracts with Citi, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse until 2024.

If the company fails to meet its debt obligations, or financial covenant requirements, then the loans are subject to default.

This puts AMC Entertainment in a tricky position in terms of what they can and cannot do or say.

Which also explains why the CEO cannot raise awareness of the manipulative shorting of the company stock.

It’s very likely that speaking out on such topics may violate these covenant agreements.

Some retail investors have scrutinized Adam Aron for not speaking out on naked shorts like other CEO’s are doing today.

But this news may provide shareholders with more perspective on why that is.

Is AMC Entertainment Being Held Hostage by Lenders?

Citigroup currently holds call options representing 0 of underlying shares valued at $0 USD and put options representing 55,000 of underlying shares valued at $383,000 USD.

Source: Fintel.

The bank has been selling shares while playing put options in order to profit from the drops they’re triggering in the market.

On November 7th, 2022, Citigroup dropped AMC’s price target from $3.13 per share to $1.20 per share and used the media to promote the price target.

Just a month prior to Citi’s price hit, Credit Suisse said in October AMC shares are worth less than $1.

The banks are making their money which means it’s going to be up to the company and shareholders to prove the Wall Street short thesis wrong.

But I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.

Leave a comment down below.

Market News Published Daily

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Massive Banks Are Now Getting Fined For Illegal Short Selling

Two massive banks are now getting fined for illegal short selling (naked short selling), according to a new Bloomberg report.

South Korea regulators are seeking $7.67 million each from HSBC and BNP Bank for naked short selling, people familiar with the matter told media outlets.

The five-member commission led by Financial Services Commission (FSC) Vice Chairman Kim So-young discussed the fines during a meeting on Wednesday but could not reach a conclusion, the report said, adding that the final amount may change during discussions later.

Naked short-selling of stocks – in which an investor short sells shares without first borrowing them or determining they can be borrowed – unlike in the United States, is banned by the Capital Markets Act in South Korea.

“We are investigating financial companies involved in naked short-selling, but we cannot comment whether fines have been finalized,” an FSC official said.

Last month, South Korea reimposed a full ban on short-selling until the end of June 2024 to create a “level playing field” for retail and institutional investors.

In the United States, several petitions have been shared online in efforts to ban short selling as well.

Unfortunately, naked short selling in the U.S. continues to be a big problem.

In September, Citadel Securities was charged for illegal short selling violations by the SEC.

According to the SEC’s order, for a five-year period, it is estimated that Citadel Securities incorrectly marked millions of orders, inaccurately denoting that certain short sales were long sales and vice versa.

“Compliance with the order marking requirements of Reg SHO is a key component of regulatory efforts to curtail abusive market practices, including ‘naked’ short selling,” said Mark Cave, Associate Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

Share this article on X.

Also Read: “The Game is Rigged”, Says Ex-Citadel Data Scientist

Other Market News Today

Market News Today - Massive Banks Are Now Getting Fined For Illegal Short Selling.
Market News Today – Massive Banks Are Now Getting Fined For Illegal Short Selling.

A new company now seems to be targeted by naked shorts, at least that’s what a CEO and former AMEX Vice President are alleging.

Collective Audience (CAUD) stock has had a rather steady share price since 2021.

Shares of the advertising company rose to more than $27 per share on Wednesday, October 25th before getting halted and crashing to its current $1.20 levels.

CEO Brent Suen has since purchased 190,000 shares of CAUD stock but claims there seems to be a high probability of fraud at play here.

“NASDAQ halted trading on October 25 due to a non-qualified float below 500,000 shares.

However, on Nov 3 and 6 the float was still 61,000 shares and the price had fallen from $27 to $5.31 down 80%.

NASDAQ did not halt the stock during that time,” Suen told Frank Nez.

Collective Audiences’ partners are now on the radar as suspects, though an official investigation has yet to be announced by the company.

One scenario states that CAUD’s partners may have sold company shares at the top and began shorting the company as prices began to plunge, causing further devaluation.

The second scenario sheds light on the possibility of naked short selling.

The CEO has a strong concern that hedge funds may have collectively shorted the company ‘naked’ after the surge on October 25th.

Tony Forte, former Vice President of the Trading Analysis Division at AMEX reached out to Frank Nez to confirm irregularities in the trading of Collective Audience stock.

“Over the last few years I have closely followed the trading activity in LGIQ, prior to and after the spinoff of DataLogiq into the Arbi SPAC.

I strongly believe at least two thirds of the floating supply is held by shareholders who have no intention of selling any of their shares until CAUD is trading at much higher prices. That conclusion would reduce the current floating supply to under 1.2 million shares.

The substantial and continuous selling in CAUD appears to be the result of computerized trading based on sell side algorithms accompanied by short selling, most likely naked, by marketmakers and large investors,” Forte shared with Frank Nez.

“The computerized trading was particularly evident on December 7th:  At 10:10 am, the last sale in CAUD was 2.10.

From 10:10 through 10:15 the stock decline to 1.82, down 28 cents, on trading volume of 113,995 shares. During that five minute time span there were 576 trades.

Although the short activity, reported by FINRA, during the October 25 through December 11th period was only between 25-30% it would still indicate that 11-12 million shares were sold short.

In order for the algorithm computerized trading to show a profit in CAUD, which has a very small  float, there would have to be at least 4-5 firms utilizing that strategy. That raises the question of “working in concert”.”

CAUD stock is currently down more than -88% this year-to-date.

This is a developing story — for more updates on CAUD and other stocks, follow me on X: https://twitter.com/FNez_Blogger.

Also Read: MULN Stock: 5 Billion Shares in Illegal Scheme Now Confirmed

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Market News Today - Massive Banks Are Now Getting Fined For Illegal Short Selling.
Market News Today – Massive Banks Are Now Getting Fined For Illegal Short Selling.

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Ken Griffin Now Makes Surprising Claims Confirming Illegal Manipulation

Ken Griffin now makes surprising claims confirming the illegal manipulation that retail investors have been raising awareness about for years.

“Markets are efficient because of active managers setting the prices of securities,” says Citadel Securities’ Ken Griffin.

This prompts the big question, does supply and demand matter? And is it even real?

For years now, retail investors have alleged that market makers and hedge funds have the full control of where prices go.

Dark pools have allowed institutions to keep a big percentage of retail money from displaying in the lit market.

Naked shorts have allowed institutions to suppress the buying pressure of a stock, driving prices down.

And the media, unfortunately doesn’t report this.

“Firms like Citadel, firms like Fidelity, firms like Viking Global, Capital Research, we’re all running large teams of people that are engaged in fundamental research trying to drive the value of companies towards where we think they should be valued,” says Griffin.

If market makers and hedge funds have the ability to decide what the stock price of a company should be, then this annihilates the market’s integrity when hedge funds such as Citadel have a dark history of market manipulation.

In September, Citadel was charged for illegal short selling violations by the SEC after incorrectly marking short sales as long sales for the duration of five years.

“Compliance with the order marking requirements of Reg SHO is a key component of regulatory efforts to curtail abusive market practices, including ‘naked’ short selling,” said Mark Cave, Associate Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

“This action against Citadel Securities demonstrates that a broker-dealer’s failure to comply with the requirements of Reg SHO can have negative downstream consequences on the accuracy of the firm’s electronic records, including its electronic blue sheet reporting, depriving the Commission of important information about the markets it regulates.”

Should firms, such as Citadel, have total control of pricing the market?

Or is this is a direct violation of the laws of supply and demand?

Leave your thoughts below — share this article on X.

Also Read: “The Game is Rigged”, Says Ex-Citadel Data Scientist

Other Market News Today

Market News Today - Ken Griffin Now Makes Surprising Claims Confirming Illegal Manipulation.
Market News Today – Ken Griffin Now Makes Surprising Claims Confirming Illegal Manipulation.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler now takes an unexpected stance against hedge funds in his latest interview with CNBC.

The Chairman, who’s been heavily criticized by retail investors for failing to create real change in the market, is making it clear on just how important short selling transparency truly is.

For years now, the hedge fund industry has been fighting against the SEC’s new rules which would require more disclosure of short sale transactions, Citadel Securities included.

The SEC approved new rules in October related to short selling.

The first rule required certain fund managers to report their short sales to the SEC within 14 days at the end of the month.

The second rule requires that financial companies that facilitate securities loans disclose information about those transactions to FINRA on a daily basis.

“Remember the events around GameStop nearly three years ago?” Gensler said.

“We have a lot of transparency in the long side, let’s add transparency to the short side that Congress mandated.”

SEC Commissioner Jaime Lizarraga stated in October that securities lending facilitates illegal trading.

“As with securities lending, short sales, provided they are conducted in compliance with applicable rules, can play a valuable price discovery role in our capital markets.

That said, they can sometimes contribute to, or even cause, precipitous price declines, facilitate market manipulation, and generate market uncertainty and volatility”, the Commissioner said.

Now Gary Gensler is pushing short sale transparency.

“Congress weighed in after the financial crisis and mandated that the SEC address and have rules for transparency around short selling for investment managers,” he said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.

“I got to the agency nine years later and the agency had not done a congressional mandate. I’m very proud we took it up.”

This is a developing story.

Also Read: South Korea Regulators Now Probe Into Illegal Short Selling

Market News Published Daily 📰

Market News Today - Ken Griffin Now Makes Surprising Claims Confirming Illegal Manipulation.
Market News Today – Ken Griffin Now Makes Surprising Claims Confirming Illegal Manipulation.

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This year we’ve been able to increase push notifications slots making it more convenient than ever for new readers to receive their daily market news and updates.

Scroll below to view my stock purchases this month!

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Wondering which stocks Frank Nez is holding? Which stocks is Frank Nez buying?

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11/16/2023 – Today I invested $1,000 in two different stocks for a brand new stock dividend portfolio I am creating for 2024.



SEC Now Aims To Guide Asia on Illegal Short Selling

The SEC now aims to guide Asia on illegal short selling, which has raised many concerns primarily back in U.S soil.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has failed to tackle the root of the problem back at home, prompting investors to question the SEC’s authority overseas.

Bangkok Post reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission has asked the Association of Securities Companies (ASCO) members to “adjust their short sell guidelines based on the SEC’s instructions.”

Asco has reaffirmed “there is no naked short selling on the Thai exchange.”

Asco president, Pichet Sithi-Amnuai said the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has regularly examined short selling in cooperation with Asco, and has confirmed there is no naked short selling.

SEC Secretary-General Pornanong Budsaratragoon said the regulator asked Asco members to adjust their short selling guidelines based on a notice from the SEC.

Asco on the other hand suggested the SEC look into the low commission fees offered by some brokers back at home to ensure a level playing field among investors.

SET President Pakorn Peetathawatchai said, “the Thai stock exchange will not allow naked short selling to take place.”

“If anyone is found using this method, we will punish them severely.”

Public perception of such trading practices in the Asian nation remains deeply negative, with local retail traders staging protests against these activities from time to time.

In the United States, naked short selling continues to be a big problem.

In September, Citadel Securities was charged for illegal short selling violations by the SEC.

However, entities such as Citadel merely ‘pay a fine to play’.

Asia has a much stronger protection policy for its investors against naked short selling compared to the United States, earning the respect from investors overseas.

Also Read: “The Game is Rigged”, Says Ex-Citadel Data Scientist

Companies Affected by Naked Short Selling in The United States

Market News Today - SEC Now Aims To Guide Asia on Illegal Short Selling.
Market News Today – SEC Now Aims To Guide Asia on Illegal Short Selling.

Since the ‘meme stock frenzy’ of 2021, retail investors have raised concerns of naked short selling in GameStop and AMC Entertainment stock.

Ex-Citadel data scientist Patrick McConlogue says Citadel and others were able to make their money back during the trading halts, cheating investors out of their money.

Stocks such as AMC and MULN (Mullen Automotive) have been on the NYSE Threshold Securities List many times over, a clear sign a stock is being manipulated by naked shorts, says Yahoo Finance’s Jared Blikre.

A recent case that has taken regulators by a surprise is that of the MMTLP scandal.

Investors allege the strong probability of illegal short selling in the ticker after transcripts between the FINRA and the SEC were leaked of a fraud investigation that was occurring just moments before the U3 halt and delisting of MMTLP.

Companies such as Genius Group, FingerMotion and Global Tech Industries have also been open about illegal short selling investigations.

As more businesses come forward about the market injustices they are experiencing within their company’s stock ticker, the more we begin to realize just how bad the US fraud in the stock market is.

Also Read: For Five Years Citadel Marked Short Sales As Long

Market News Published Daily 📰

Market News Today - SEC Now Aims To Guide Asia on Illegal Short Selling.
Market News Today – SEC Now Aims To Guide Asia on Illegal Short Selling.

Don’t forget to opt-in for push notifications so you don’t miss a single article!

Also, thank you to all of our blog sponsors.

This year we’ve been able to increase push notifications slots making it more convenient than ever for new readers to receive their daily market news and updates.

Scroll below to view my stock purchases this month!

You can also follow me on X (Twitter)InstagramFacebook, or LinkedIn for daily news and updates on your favorite stories.


Frank Nez’s Stock Portfolio

Wondering which stocks Frank Nez is holding? Which stocks is Frank Nez buying?

Frank Nez is now sharing his exclusive and personal stock portfolio with readers, only on the Patreon.

11/16/2023 – Today I invested $1,000 in two different stocks for a brand new stock dividend portfolio I am creating for 2024.



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