AMC Entertainment shares have fallen below $5.
The last time shares traded at this level retail investors were aiming at squeezing short sellers from their positions.
Retailers who aimed to push AMC’s share price above $100 per share when it reached its all-time high of $72 persist on squeezing shorts today.
AMC closed at $4.89 on Monday with healthy trading volume around 28.5 million, 2 million more than its average.
The movie theatre’s market cap has fallen below 3 billion, currently at 2.5 billion.
Shareholders who are down significant amounts of dollars say market manipulation played a huge role in suppressing the demand created by retail investors.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler admitted to dark exchanges having an unfair advantage over the average investor in an interview with ‘We The Investors‘.
He even claimed that he doesn’t believe the self-regulatory organization FINRA should have the ‘best execution rule‘, which allows them to execute orders in off-exchange and dark markets.
Here’s the latest market news.
Join the newsletter to receive weekly market news and updates straight to your inbox.
Or follow me on Twitter for daily posts.
SEC Chairman Speaks on Dark Pools
In a recent interview conducted by ‘We The Investors’, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler says he understands retail frustrations.
But retail investors were quick to give the Chairman backlash, stating actions speak louder than words.
While ‘We The Investors’ has taken a historic step towards representing the retail community in front of regulators as a whole, many retail investors remain skeptical, lacking trust from government leaders.
The SEC Chairman says that short selling is a challenging area where the SEC is still working and pursuing focus on.
One of the biggest challenges according to Chairman Gensler is that Wall Street powers will send stacks of reports highlighting rebuttals on proposals aimed at protecting retail investors.
Dave Laurer asked the SEC Chairman if dark pools suppressed the price of stock and whether retail investors could influence the price of a stock if majority of orders traded in the lit exchange.
While there was no direct answer to the suppression of price, the Chairman says that with so much trading happening off-exchange, he doesn’t think it’s a leveled playing field as dark pools give institutions an unfair advantage.
Retail investors as individuals don’t have the power to move the markets, but retail orders combined could have significant price impact, said the SEC Chairman.
“FINRA must be investigated”, says The Retail Community
Self-regulated organization FINRA has been receiving a lot of attention on social media recently.
While FINRA requires firms to be able to meet their short sale requirements as well as have a process to close out fails to deliver within their required timeframes, the organization allows the manipulation in the markets to happen.
FTDS (fails-to-deliver) are mounting up every month according to SEC data, and FINRA is unable to get firms to close out these obligations.
The retail community is calling it foul play, alleging the possibility of lobbying within the self-regulated organization.
But despite the falling prices from both AMC Entertainment and its equity (APE), the company continues to trend on social media.
Investors haven’t been scared off so easily but rather empowered to fight for transparency in the markets.
What Are Your Thoughts on AMC Entertainment?
Are you a shareholder that is still buying and holding?
Leave your thoughts down below for the community to see.
Related: Adam Aron Addresses Falling APE Shares
