Brookfield Office Properties Inc T.BPO.PR.A

RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:After Hour Manipulation

[Carena]

Hi Rod,

All I know is it was a very material day for the BPO prefs and we are left guessing as to what happened.  3 million shares traded on shares that usually trade in total, maybe 90,000 shares per day.

A few of my thoughts:

(i) Could the 3 million in BPO pref shares that traded yesterday be just due to a transfer from some investment grade fund/ETF to a fund/ETF that is allowed to hold "junk" securities and the transfers have to cross on the exchange?  

(ii) If it was a Brookfield related entity (eg PVF which I alluded to in an earlier post), this would be a very material event and should be disclosed.  But I am not sure a PVF would have to disclose this until their financials are released.

(iii) I am also intrigued by the level of short activity.  For example, the continuity of the total of the N,T,E and G series (ie the series I happen to own) short position for the period Dec 31 to Jan 15 is as follows:

 - Short Position Dec 31      624,626
 - Shares Covered              (806,311)
 -  Shares Shorted               793,526
 - Short Position Jan 15       611,841

I would say these are huge numbers for generally illiquid securities.


Nonetheless, I have to think all those block trades yesterday are somehow connected and we will find out sooner or later. 

Going to be an interesting 2024!


Have a great weekend,
Carena