New York Post- If the Securities and Exchange Commission expands its clampdown on short-selling, it is widely expected to slam hedge funds like Stephen Cohen’s SAC Capital and James Simon’s Renaissance Technologies, which profit from fast-and-furious trading, experts predicted.
That’s because under the long-accepted rules of the short-selling game, these hedge funds, which often trade through sophisticated computer programs, have been able to skip the process of borrowing the shares needed to cap off their short positions.
But that luxury is now being challenged by the SEC’s mandate requiring investors who short 19 financial stocks, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to borrow the shares they short before they bet against the stock whose price they predict will fall.
