Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT) finally stopped its decline last Thursday. As of the close of the US stock market on Friday, DJT's stock has risen by a cumulative 27.78% for the week, but it is still almost halved from the high point of the stock price.
The key to reversing the sharp decline is related to the consecutive anti short selling signals issued by Trump Media Company. Last Wednesday, a short selling reminder was updated on the official website of Trump Media Company, guiding shareholders on how to prevent their stocks from being lent to short sellers for trading.
Subsequently, Devin Nunes, CEO of Trump Media, once again stepped up and publicly stated that he would make every effort to protect the company's retail investors from the impact of illegal short selling.
He said that even if he had to go to Congress for a hearing or take legal action, Trump Media would spare no effort to protect its retail investors.
Is it illegal short selling?
Last Tuesday, US President Biden secretly criticized his longtime rival Trump, stating that Trump's media stock price has plummeted from over $70 to below the issue price. If it were to fall even lower, Trump may have earned more under the current tax system than he did during his tenure.
Biden demanded that high-income groups pay more taxes in tax laws, while implementing a series of tax reductions for middle and low-income families, while Trump demanded tax cuts for the wealthy during his administration. Biden's words were intended to satirize how the drop in Trump's stock price would lead Trump himself into the middle and low-income class.
Regarding this, Nunes responded last Friday that Biden's attitude was very strange and further emphasized that the significant decline in DJT's stock price was partly due to illegal market manipulation.
He pointed out that the report from the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows that as of April 3, 2024, DJT is the most expensive short selling US stock in history, which means brokers have a huge economic incentive to lend out non-existent stocks.
In addition, he also stated that DJT has appeared on Nasdaq's Reg SHO threshold list, which may indicate the existence of illegal transactions. The SHO regulation is a regulation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that regulates the abuse of naked short selling. Climbing the Reg SHO threshold indicates a clear signal of naked short selling in a particular security.
In naked selling, the seller did not borrow or arrange to borrow securities in order to deliver them to the buyer within the standard settlement period. Therefore, the seller's inability to deliver the securities to the buyer at maturity constitutes a naked short selling behavior.
But regulatory authorities also point out that naked short selling is not necessarily illegal, unless it is intentionally used to manipulate the market. In addition, stocks listed on the Reg SHO threshold list do not necessarily imply illegal activities in their trading activities.
After Nunes gave a speech, Citadel hedge fund, which was accused of participating in naked short selling, mocked Nunes as just a failure and now wants to blame the stock price decline on naked short selling.