Unacceptable: AMC Entertainment Is Now on the NYSE Threshold Securities List for 23 Consecutive Days

wccftech.com:

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

The SEC's confounding hesitation when it comes to taking timely action against violations of established norms is feeding the speculative frenzy around AMC Entertainment shares, bolstering the claims of those who see a broader conspiracy in how the stock is supposedly manipulated to prevent a sustained ramp-up.

As can be seen in the snippet above, AMC shares have now ended up on the NYSE's Threshold Securities list for the 23rd consecutive day. For the benefit of those who might be unaware, the list consists of securities whose transactions failed to clear for five consecutive settlement days at a registered clearing agency. While such settlement failures might occasionally be the result of administrative errors, AMC's sustained spree on the list suggests some level of naked short-selling, which is an illegal practice where short positions are opened without first borrowing the requisite shares from someone else or ensuring that they can be borrowed.

So, when naked short-selling is employed, and the resulting shares are not delivered to the appropriate counterparty, the underlying transactions will fail to clear, which are then reported on the Threshold List. Against this backdrop, the SEC's lethargy to take appropriate remedial action is quite troubling.

As the Threshold List drama unfolds, AMC investors are also keeping an eye on a high-stakes legal battle. Back in the summer of 2021, AMC issued a special dividend of 1 AMC Preferred Equity (APE) share to every common stockholder. Since then, the company has been issuing APE units in droves to raise additional cash and pay down its