VW stock up 343%

[GothingNC]

The short squeeze sent Volkswagen (DE:766400: news, chart, profile) shares up as much as 93% on Tuesday, extending Monday's massive rally that sent VW's common shares up 250%.

200 Euros/share jumped up to 900 Euros/share

VW is now the worlds richest firm, for the time being.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/vw-shorts-scramble-exits-market/story.aspx?guid=%7B9EB788D5%2D6606%2D49A4%2DB458%2 D293EFF940E6E%7D&dist=morenews_ts

[strupgolf]

Why ?

[competentone]

That wasn't any "normal" short squeeze; manipulation in the markets -- especially by the government is driving the dramatic swings in prices.

The VW situation involved a change in rules (margin requirements) which made the short squeeze ridiculous.

The move in our markets today was also completely manipulated. More government players using the taxpayers' money to make money for themselves and their politically connected buddies. More government action propping up bankrupt companies:

The Fed started buying commercial paper yesterday, when companies sold 1,511 longer-term issues totaling a record $67.1 billion of debt due in more than 80 days, compared with a daily average of 340 issues valued at $6.7 billion last week, according to Fed data. The central bank probably absorbed about $60 billion of the total, said Adolfo Laurenti, a senior economist at Mesirow Financial Inc.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAVJwAsjSn2Y&refer=worldwide

[Rich76_911s]

Here is a short story that essentially sums it up:

http://norris.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/short-squeeze-2/?scp=2&sq=VW&st=cse

Porsche not only makes the best cars in the world but they also crush hedge funds.

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by Rich76_911s

Porsche not only makes the best cars in the world but they also crush hedge funds.

Muhahahaha!

[competentone]

Originally Posted by Rich76_911s

Here is a short story that essentially sums it up:

http://norris.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/short-squeeze-2/?scp=2&sq=VW&st=cse

Porsche not only makes the best cars in the world but they also crush hedge funds.

From the article:

Whoever sold such a sizable call option to Porsche should have known better, I suppose. It is not a very good idea to bet against somebody who can decide the outcome.

The rumor is Goldman Sachs wrote some of the calls.

If true, I guess we will now be seeing Henry Paulson trying to crush Porsche (to bail out his buddies at Goldman again)!

I'm not sure all the calls were just "cash settled" -- if someone was writing naked calls (or shorting the stock naked) and Porsche was planning to exercise calls to buy shares, those short will be scrambling to buy shares that just don't exist!

We're likely to see similar percentage price movements in precious metals in the coming months as there appears to be significant naked short sellers in the futures markets. Actual delivery demands are looking like they will be heavier than some of the short sellers have expected; we could see "the mother of all short squeezes" if sellers are left scrambling to buy metal that just isn't available.

[competentone]

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Porsche-sell-part-its-VW/story.aspx?guid={B2507535-B304-40C3-85BC-D227AFFE91B4}

Porsche to sell some VW shares to meet short demand

By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
Last update: 6:43 a.m. EDT Oct. 29, 2008

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Porsche Automobil Holding on Wednesday said it would sell up to 5% of its stake in Volkswagen AG to meet unprecedented demand for the Wolfsburg automaker's stock after arguably the biggest short squeeze in stock-market history.

The move's designed "to avoid further market distortions and the resulting consequences for those involved," Porsche (DE:PAH003: news, chart, profile) said -- but laid the blame for this week's massive rise in VW shares squarely with the short sellers themselves.

"Porsche denies all responsibility for these market distortions and for the resulting risks to which the short sellers have exposed themselves," the company said in a statement.

"Porsche wishes to point out that the applicable capital-markets law provisions have been complied with at all times. Porsche has not been active in the market during this share price movement."

Porsche said it alerted the German Federal Agency for Financial Services Supervision, or BaFin, prior to taking the step.

Volkswagen on Tuesday briefly became the world's largest company by market capitalization -- valued at more than all the other publicly traded automakers combined -- as part of a two-day, 348% surge.

The scramble for Volkswagen shares, already apparent during the last two months, intensified when Porsche over the weekend revealed that it had increased its equity stake in VW to 42.6% from about 35%, and more crucially, that it had options to buy another 31.5%.

Porsche had previously indicated it was looking to take a stake of more than 50% in VW but had not previously said it was going after three-quarters control. Porsche on Wednesday reiterated its commitment to going after a 75% stake "at prices which are economically justifiable."

The scramble for VW stock was intense in part because there were so few shares available: Porsche has effective control over 74% of VW, and the Lower State of Saxony, which is fighting both Porsche and the European Union to preserve a blocking stake, has another 20%.

Banks including Goldman Sachs and Societe Generale have been hurt by speculation of involvement in the VW short squeeze.

A Wednesday report in The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the funds, named some of the most famous hedge-fund managers as being caught in the VW short squeeze: Greenlight Capital, SAC Capital, Glenview Capital, Marshall Wace, Tiger Asia, Perry Capital and Highside Capital. See story at WSJ.com
Volkswagen's shares came back down to earth, a bit at midweek, dropping 41% to 553 euros in Frankfurt.

It was Porsche shares that vaulted higher, rallying 35% as the luxury automaker's market capitalization reflects just a fraction of the valuation of its VW holding.

The stake sale could lead to profits of roughly 1.5 billion euros, Commerzbank analysts said, estimating that Porsche's strike price was 100 euros and that the VW shares are sold at 200 euros each.

Meanwhile, index compilers moved to reduce the Volkswagen impact as well.
Deutsche Boerse said it will reduce the weighting of Volkswagen shares on its DAX index to 10%. The weighting had reached 27% at Tuesday's close.
Separately, Stoxx said Volkswagen's free-float factor will be reduced to 0.3732 from 0.4963.

The Commerzbank analysts said the index compilers' moves will also free up stock as index trackers won't need to hold as many VW shares. They estimated that 2% of VW's free float will be released by the move.

Stoxx is a joint venture of the Deutsche Boerse, the Swiss Exchange and Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch, the publisher of this report, is a unit of Dow Jones. End of Story
Steve Goldstein is MarketWatch's London bureau chief.