Replies to post #539437 on NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[HappyLibrarian]

NWBO could PR any issue of that nature and maybe bring back in CREW.

[exwannabe]

I never really understood how voting works if you have a very large number of naked short sales.

Votes are based on the shares actually held and delivered.

For properly delivered shorts (legal or not), whoever loaned the shares is not entitled to a vote. So all balances.

For undelivered shares, then the party that paid for shares but did not receive them cannot vote. If one bought shares direct and they were not delivered, too bad. Take it up with the seller for not delivering.

So the issue you are discussing is Joe Retail who has shares at E*Trade. Say E*Trade has 100M shares their customers have paid for but only 99M have actually been delivered to them. Technically that is a problem, but in reality it never is because most retail do not vote,

Say 70M retail vote. E*Trade then votes (or dealer non votes) the remaining 29M

The only way it would matter is if the undelivered shares are so high they exceed the non-voted shares. And if you ever look at the numbers you will see that is not ever going to happen.

For NWBO the outstanding FTD number is typically under 10k. The number of non votes in the last election was around 200M.

EDIT: FWIW, a more interesting issue on this subject was with dividends. At first glance they are simple as the broker just makes good. But the does not solve the tax issue where the divi is taxed different, A few years ago the IRS decided that it was not worth effort to address this. Kind of like frequent flyer miles on company tickets that should be taxed as income.

[skitahoe]

Hank,

As I understand what's happened in other companies where more votes came in than shares outstanding they simply accepted them all and therefore accepted the outcome. This might not be the case if the outcome went against what the company wanted, but it didn't. I believe much the same would happen here.

If I were to agree to Fidelity's procedure for paying me for borrowing shares, I would lose my right to vote those shares. I will not set that up prior to this vote though my shares are in a margin account and could be lent without my even knowing it. As I understand the agreement, I can revoke it in the future, and have the shares be votable, and then reinstate it after the vote, so it's really not a bad plan to bring in some extra income. I'll wait until next year to put it in place, wanting to vote my shares I have little other choice.

I really wish the SEC would actively eliminate naked shorts and police MM's so they cannot maintain short positions over extensive periods of time. To me, investing should be based on expecting companies to grow, not working to bring them down. Clearly mine is an old fashioned notion, but I believe it's what all investment ought to be about. It's impossible for small investors to beat the computerized traders who can profit with either gains of losses in the market, you win if you have stocks that they too work to advance. I believe that NWBO is a stock that in time Institutions will take through the roof if it isn't bought out. If it is bought out it should be for a huge multiple of todays prices.

Gary