The attempt made on Donald Trump’s life at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13 has proven fertile ground for conspiracy theories.
From the Secret Service’s strange ignoring of warnings provided by the public to the strange history of the would-be assassin to Joe Biden’s likely innocent but dreadfully-timed comments, there has been no shortage of speculation, fear, anxiety, and accusations.
In an event starkly reminiscent of strange trading activity just before the 9/11 attacks in 2001, reports of an asset manager taking a massive short position of 12 million shares of Trump Media (NASDAQ: DJT) shortly before the attack.
Picks for you
The filing quickly drew the attention of the public due to its scale and its relative isolation – it was disclosed two months after the other most recent bet against Trump Media.
Finally, on July 18 as the media storm surrounding the short position was growing out of control, Austin Private Wealth LLC – the company who placed the bet – came out claiming it was all a clerical error.
Austin Private Wealth explains its clerical error
According to the firm’s statement, the filing covering put options for DJT – as well as for their other recent trades – was erroneous as ‘a multiplier was applied by a third-party vendor that increased the number of the shares by a multiple of 10,000 for all options contracts (not just DJT).’
Austin Private Wealth also clarified that the trade was made on June 28, disclosed on July 12, and then modified after the error was caught on July 16 – an event that itself ignited suspicion prior to the statement’s release.
The financial manager with $1 billion in assets also apologized for making the error at such a sensitive time:
We deeply regret this error and the concern it has caused, especially at such a fraught moment for our nation. We are committed to full transparency and maintaining the trust of our clients. As such, we are reviewing our internal procedures and our processes with the third-party vendor that assists with SEC filings to better understand how this happened and avoid similar issues moving forward.
While a company called Conlustro Research quickly opined on X that Austin Private Wealth would likely face a fine for its error, a paper published by the University of Notre Dame in March 2024 found that mistakes on 13-f filings are seldom, if ever, penalized.
Buy stocks now with eToro – trusted and advanced investment platform
Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.
