NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[Dan88]

How do you know it's a 'fairytale' exactly, since naked shorting is illegal, a crime committed, thus-hidden, and even sometimes knowingly or unknowingly sanctioned legally by SEC by allowing MMs for carrying a balance of "undeliverables" of a mix bag forward for unlimited time in the name of able to maintain a market. And MMs trade those balances back and forth all the time. the usually healthy market is maintained by the pure sanity of MMs, which means not all MMs are dumb enough.

On the other hand, there is always much simpler village level short story.

Below is a naked short story not so sophisticated committed starring boy genius Martin Shkreli:

https://caia.org/blog/2015/12/27/denial-the-role-of-naked-shorting-in-the-fall-of-martin-shkreli

" ......
Back on the Rails

Let’s get back to the failure-to-deliver matter though. The indictment charges that on or about February 1, 2011, Shkreli took a large short position in Orexigen Therapeutics (OREX) on a brokerage account that his MSMB Capital maintained with Merrill Lynch. Shkreli had not actually located the ORX shares to borrow: that is – although the indictment doesn’t use the language – his position was naked. Further, Shkreli and MSMB falsely maintained to Merrill Lynch that it did have cover for these positions.

OREX had taken a very sharp fall in late January of that year, all the way from a high of $9.54 to a close of $1.77 on the final day of the month. It may have seemed an easy bet that the fall would continue. But it didn’t. Heading into February, the price stabilized. At the left hand edge of the stock chart at the top of this story, you’ll see the sharp drop, and then the brief plateau that came into existence precisely at the moment when Shkreli was betting it wouldn’t.

MSMB defaulted on its position, and Merrill Lynch had to take a loss of $7 million. Due to this and related developments at the same time, the value of MSMB Capital’s bank and brokerage accounts fell from $1.12 million to just $58,500 in the month of February alone. Also, MSMB stopped trading. In effect, it was done.

If the indictment is accurate – the burden of proof is of course on the prosecution and there has been no trial at which that burden could have been satisfied – this was a fateful moment for Shkreli and Greebel. They responded to this set-back with what a Freudian would surely recognize as Denial as a defense mechanism. They acted – and presented numbers for the relevant entities to the public – as if nothing of the sort had taken place.

......"

To be honest, a sane person or entity would have long covered his/her/its illegally shorted (naked short) position of nwbo, but there is always endless dumb or dumber or dumbest thing happen.

And if such a thing happens, it usually happens out of proportion.

My money is not bet on that of course, which is on science and known data in anticipation of the similar if not better data from unblinded trial. But if indeed is the case with tens of million or hundreds of millions of naked short shares, I will be out of proportionally happier.