Goph, you keep under estimating the CRIMINALS ego here. Again, they thought they knew the predeterminded result for Equity...CANCELLED, so Equity would ultimately be cancelled and automatically closing their positions, therefore ABSOLUTELY no reason to cover...Again, why as they thought they knew the PREDETERMINED result for Equity?
Just thinking out loud here. Your logic seems very, well, how can I put this, logical?
But how about this scenario;
What if they don't cover the NSS, because they "thought" the commons were going to get wiped out, therefore they wouldn't have to pay taxes on the gain because they never covered the short.