Milestone - 100th Post!

Today marks the 100th post on Stock Lending Today.   I started the blog in order to share my thoughts and views on the securities lending industry and related subjects.  My feeling was that there was a need for the community to be able to communicate on relevant issues without having to wait for industry events, trade organisation communications, or the trade journals.  Little did I know that stock lending would become so famous - or should I say "infamous" - in the months following launch. 

Until the turmoil that started with sub-prime last year, the only other time the words "stock lending" appeared on the BBC was in connection with the Maxwell pension fraud whereby undocumented, uncollateralised stock lending was used to pilfer assets.  Not a great issue to be associated with, and again the news regarding short selling is also unfavourable company.  Never mind that all the academic evidence points towards short selling being a valuable part of the financial markets.  Forget even the regulators who have reluctantly acknowledged the importance of the securities lending business.  The need for a scapegoat is a basic human need, right after food, shelter and sex.  Hopefully the IOSCO Task Forces will add some meaningful discussion and debate.

Stock Lending Today now has 76 subscribers around the world - thank you!  Also, tomorrow the site should reach the 10,000th page hit.  I'm really happy with that, and as you can see from the chart below the trend is increasing.  The regular dips reflect weekend hit levels.

The other development that I think shows securities financing people want to improve their connections is the growth of the Securities Lending Traders Network.  This group on LinkedIn now boasts over 500 members from over 100 different companies and located in 26 countries around the world.  Most satisfying for me is that I often see the first person from a company join, and then a few days or a week later, their colleagues joining up.  The range of discussion and debate and the number of participants continues to grow.

The blog will only be successful if it reflects what you want me to write about.  So let me know what subjects you would like to see me cover. Also, I get a lot of emails sent directly to me which I appreciate.  But why limit your interesting and often witty comments to just me?  You can post your comments on the screen and do so anonymously.  Give it a shot - people will be interested in reading what you have to say.

Thanks very much for all your support and kind words since launching and keep contributing.  If you like it, why not tell others about it?  Finally - I recommend you join SLTN.  It's free and you can connect to people globally.   As the title suggests, this industry is still under siege, and better, more open communication can only be a good thing!