[This FAQ has been excerpted, in part or its entirety, from  Division of Market Regulation: Key Points About Regulation SHO ]

V. Answers to Frequently-Asked Questions from Investors

1. Is all naked short selling abusive or illegal?

When considering naked short selling, it is important to know which activity is the focus of discussion.

• Selling stock short without having located stock for delivery at settlement . This activity would violate Regulation SHO, except for short sales by market makers engaged in bona fide market making. Market makers do not have to locate stock before selling short, because they need to be able to provide liquidity. However, market makers are not excepted from Regulation SHO's close-out and pre-borrow requirements.


• Selling stock short and failing to deliver shares at the time of settlement . This activity doesn't necessarily violate any rules. There are legitimate reasons why a seller may fail to deliver on the scheduled settlement date.


• Selling stock short and failing to deliver shares at the time of settlement with the purpose of driving down the security's price . This manipulative activity, in general, would violate various securities laws, including Rule 10b-5 under the Exchange Act. Regulation SHO does not address this issue.

2. Is naked short selling the reason my stock has lost value?

Investors should always use caution before investing in high-risk, speculative stocks, especially with regard to their retirement portfolios, because all stocks may decline in value. There are many reasons why a stock may decline in value. The value of a stock is determined by the basic relationship between supply and demand. If many people want a stock (demand is high), then the price will rise. If a few people want a stock (demand is low), then the price will fall. The main factor determining the demand for a stock is the quality of the company itself. If the company is fundamentally strong, that is, if it is generating positive income, its stock is less likely to lose value.

Speculative stocks, such as microcap stocks, often have a high probability of declining in value and a low probability of experiencing above average gains. ²⁷ For example, investors should take extra care to thoroughly research any company quoted exclusively in the Pink Sheets. ²⁸ With the exception of a few foreign issuers, the companies quoted in the Pink Sheets tend to be closely held, extremely small or thinly traded. Most do not meet the minimum listing requirements for trading on a national securities exchange, such as the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq Stock Market. Many of these companies do not file periodic reports or audited financial statements with the SEC, making it very difficult for investors to find reliable, unbiased information about those companies.

There also may be instances where a company insider or paid promoter provides false and misleading excuses for why a company's stock price has recently decreased. For instance, these individuals may claim that the price decrease is a temporary condition resulting from the activities of naked short sellers. The insiders or promoters may hope to use this misinformation to move the price back up so they can dump their own stock at higher prices. Often, the price decrease is a result of the company's poor financial situation rather than the reasons provided by the insiders or promoters.

Naked short selling, however, can have negative effects on the market. Fraudsters may use naked short selling as a tool to manipulate the market. Market manipulation is illegal. ²⁹ The SEC has toughened its rules and is vigilant about taking actions against wrongdoers. ³⁰ Fails to deliver that persist for an extended period of time may result in a significantly large unfulfilled delivery obligation at the clearing agency where trades are settled. Regulation SHO is intended to address these effects by reducing the number of potential failures to deliver, and by limiting the time in which a broker can permit a fail to deliver to persist. For instance, as explained above, Regulation SHO requires brokers and dealers to close-out the open fail-to-deliver positions in "threshold securities" ( i.e. , securities that have experienced a substantial number of extended delivery failures) that have persisted for 13 consecutive settlement days.

3. Do all failures to deliver reflect improper activity that should be closed out?

A "fail to deliver" occurs when a broker-dealer fails to deliver securities to the party on the other side of the transaction on settlement date. There are many justifiable reasons why broker-dealers do not or cannot deliver securities on settlement date. A broker-dealer may experience a problem that is either unanticipated or is out of its control, such as (1) delays in customers delivering their shares to a broker-dealer, (2) the inability to obtain borrowed shares in time for settlement, (3) issues related to the physical transfer of securities, or (4) the failure of a broker-dealer to receive shares it had purchased to fulfill its delivery obligations. Fails to deliver can result from both long and short sales.

Regulation SHO was designed to target potentially problematic failures to deliver. Prevention of fails is the goal of the locate requirement. Regulation SHO requires broker-dealers to identify a source of borrowable stock before executing a short sale in any equity security with the goal of reducing the number of situations where stock is unavailable for settlement. But, because the locate is usually done three days before settlement, the stock may not be available from the source at the time of settlement, possibly resulting in a fail.

Regulation SHO also requires some fail positions to be closed out. When a broker-dealer has a fail position in a "threshold security," and that fail position has persisted for 13 consecutive settlement days, the broker-dealer must take immediate steps to close-out the fail by purchasing securities of like kind and quantity. Even market makers that have such persistent fails in threshold securities must close-out their positions.

4. Is it a violation of law when trades do not settle on T+3?

Generally, investors must complete or "settle" their security transactions within three business days. This settlement cycle is known as "T+3," shorthand for "trade date plus three days."

T+3 means that when you buy a security, your payment must be received by your brokerage firm no later than three business days after the trade is executed. When you sell a security, you must deliver your securities, in certificated or electronic form, to your brokerage firm no later than three business days after the sale.

The three-day settlement date applies to most security transactions, including stocks, bonds, municipal securities, mutual funds traded through a brokerage firm, and limited partnerships that trade on an exchange. Government securities and stock options settle on the next business day following the trade. ³¹

Because the Commission recognized that there are many reasons why broker-dealers may fail to deliver securities on settlement date, it designed and adopted Rule 15c6-1 to prohibit broker-dealers from  contracting to settle transactions later than T+3. However, failure to deliver securities on T+3 does not violate the rule.

5. Does inclusion of a stock on the threshold list mean that improper trading is occurring in the stock?

The appearance of a security on a threshold list does not necessarily mean that there has been abusive naked short selling or any impermissible trading in the stock. Delivery failures can be caused by both long and short sales. In addition, notwithstanding actions by broker-dealers to close-out delivery failures, certain securities may remain on an SRO's threshold securities list for an extended period for a variety of legitimate reasons, such as:

• Despite proper action to close-out fails, new delivery failures from long or short sales, at the same or other broker-dealers, result in the security staying on the threshold list;


• One or more broker-dealers may have temporary but legitimate problems in obtaining the stock they borrowed in time for delivery;


• Long sellers may have difficulty in producing stock in good deliverable form to their broker-dealer;


• The delivery failures were established prior to a security's appearance on the SRO's threshold securities list, and thus are "grandfathered" from the close-out requirement.

6. Should all equity securities with high levels of fails appear on a threshold list?

Although Regulation SHO's locate provision applies to all equity securities, the close-out provisions and inclusion on a threshold securities list apply only to equity securities of companies required to register or file reports with the Commission ("reporting companies"). ³² As described above, reporting companies typically trade on an exchange or are quoted on the Nasdaq or OTCBB. Only some reporting companies are quoted on the Pink Sheets. ³³ Regulation SHO is limited to reporting companies because of the difficulty in obtaining accurate total shares outstanding data for non-reporting companies.

7. Does grandfathering permit illegal activity to go unaddressed?

Regulation SHO does not require close-outs of "grandfathered" fails. As noted above, "grandfathered" status applies where the fail position was established prior to the security becoming a threshold security. However, any new fails in a security on the threshold list are subject to the mandatory close-out provisions.

Any grandfathered position that resulted from illegal activity, such as manipulation, continues to be fully subject to redress by the Commission. ³⁴ The Commission will continue to monitor whether grandfathered open fail positions are being cleaned up under existing delivery and settlement guidelines or whether further action is warranted.

8. Do the issuers of threshold securities have "problems?"

Inclusion on the threshold list simply indicates that the aggregate failures to deliver in an issuer's equity securities have reached the level required to become a "threshold security" as defined in Regulation SHO. Inclusion on the list should not be interpreted as connoting anything negative about the particular issuer.

9. Will close-out purchases required by Regulation SHO drive up a security's price?

Close-out purchases of stock on threshold securities lists will not necessarily drive up prices of such stocks. One of the primary purposes of Regulation SHO is to clean up open fail positions in threshold securities when they reach a relatively low aggregate level, but not to cause short squeezes. The term "short squeeze" refers to the pressure on short sellers to cover their positions as a result of sharp price increases or difficulty in borrowing the security the sellers are short. The rush by short sellers to cover produces additional upward pressure on the price of the stock, which then can cause an even greater squeeze. Although some short squeezes may occur naturally in the market, a scheme to manipulate the price or availability of stock in order to cause a short squeeze is illegal.

To date, there has been little evidence of rapid and unusual upward price movement in threshold stocks.

10. Where can I obtain information on short sale positions?

The SROs publish monthly statistics on short interest in securities that trade on their markets. ³⁵ Short interest is the aggregate number of open short sale positions. Short interest does not address the number of fails to deliver that may have occurred or may occur in connection with these short sales.

Short interest for NYSE stocks can be found at: http://www.nyse.com/marketinfo/datalib/102222...moshortint . You also can learn the short interest for individual stocks that trade on the NYSE, American Stock Exchange, and Nasdaq at http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/asp/short_interest.asp or by visiting the NasdaqTrader's website at  www.nasdaqtrader.com .

There also are many commercial websites and some newspapers that offer this information. If you enter the words "short interest" into most Internet search engines, you'll quickly find websites that can provide this information.

11. Can I obtain fails information?

Currently, threshold lists include the name and ticker symbol of securities that meet the threshold level on a particular settlement date. Some investors have requested that the SROs provide more detailed information for each threshold security, including the total number of fails, the total short interest position, the name of the broker-dealer firm responsible for the fails, and the names of the customers of responsible brokers and dealers responsible for the short sales. The fails statistics of individual firms and customers is proprietary information and may reflect firms' trading strategies. The release of this information could be used to engage in unlawful upward manipulation of the price of the securities in order to "squeeze" the firms improperly.

12. I read on an internet chat room or website that a specific security has a large number of fails; are these sources reliable?

Investors should always be cautious that issuers, promoters, or shareholders may be seeking to stimulate buying interest by making false, misleading or unfounded statements in internet chat rooms or other such forums about alleged large naked short positions in some smaller issuers, particularly those trading on the OTCBB or Pink Sheets. Some individuals may encourage other investors to buy these issuers' securities by claiming that there will be an imminent "short squeeze," in which the alleged naked short sellers will be forced to cover open short positions at increasing prices. These claims in fact may be false.

The Commission's Office of Investor Education and Assistance has made available publications on the Commission's Internet web site ( www.sec.gov ) that provide helpful guidance on the securities markets and sales and trading practices, including short selling. Investors and prospective investors should be cautious of rumors on chat rooms where the intent of nameless and faceless computer users is in doubt.

13. Where can I find information on specific issuers or securities?

To find information on issuers and securities, see http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/easyaccess.htm .

14. Does NSCC's stock borrow program create "counterfeit shares?"

NSCC's stock borrow program, as approved by the Commission, permits NSCC to borrow securities from its participants for the purpose of completing settlements only if participants have made those securities available to NSCC for this purpose and those securities are on deposit in the participant's account at DTC.

15. Where can I submit information on potential violations of the federal securities laws?

If you have specific enforcement-related information, please see http://www.sec.gov/complaint.shtml for information on how to submit a complaint. You may also call 1-800-SEC-0330.

16. Where can I find information on investigations or enforcement actions pending against specific issuers or regarding specific securities?

As a policy, the SEC will neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation unless, and until, it becomes a matter of public record as the result of a court action or administrative proceeding. SEC investigations are conducted on a non-public and confidential basis to help assure the integrity of the investigative process. See http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/howoiea.htm for more information on how the Commission handles complaints.

To view enforcement actions that the Commission has taken, see http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases.shtml .

footnotes

27	See  http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/microcapstock.htm for more information.
28	Many of these stocks are also considered "penny stocks." See http://www.sec.gov/answers/penny.htm . Because penny stocks are generally risky investments, before a broker-dealer can sell a penny stock, SEC rules require the firm to first approve the customer for the transaction and receive from the customer a written agreement to the transaction. The firm must furnish the customer a document describing the risks of investing in penny stocks. The broker-dealer must tell the customer the current market quotation, if any, for the penny stock and the compensation the firm and its broker will receive for the trade. Finally, the firm must send monthly account statements showing the market value of each penny stock held in the customer's account.
29	The Commission recently brought an enforcement action against certain parties, alleging manipulative naked short selling, in a scheme sometimes termed as a "death spiral." See Rhino Advisors, Inc. and Thomas Badian, Lit. Rel. No. 18003 (February 27, 2003) at http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/lr18003.htm .
30	See  http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/microcapstock.htm .
31	For more information about T+3, see http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/tplus3.htm .
32	See  http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/microcapstock.htm for more information.
33	See  http://www.sec.gov/answers/pink.htm for more information about the Pink Sheets.
34	See  http://www.sec.gov/answers/tmanipul.htm for more information on manipulation.
35	In addition, each SRO has agreed to make publicly available the trading data in connection with the pilot. The trading data will contain information on each executed short sale involving an exchange-listed or Nasdaq National Market equity security reported by an SRO to a securities information processor. For information on where to find this data, please see http://www.sec.gov/spotlight/shopilot.htm .