Over the pond U.S. securities regulators have charged online brokerage firm, OptionsXpress, over its alleged involvement in what the regulator claims was abusive naked short selling.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that the Chicago-based firm failed to satisfy its close-out obligations under short-selling rules by repeatedly engaging in a series of sham 'reset' transactions designed to give the illusion that the firm had purchased securities of like kind and quantity. It claims that the firm, and one of its customers engaged in these transactions in a number of securities, resulting in continuous failures to deliver