I believe that a company can get a list of shareholders and their holdings. It happens whenever proxies go out etc. For a fee, TDC could discover whether there are more shares floating out there than issued.

Am I wrong to suggest that this could be done?

Could it be that the first to the trough or more politically connected brokerages got their shares first as they would ultimately be responsible for making good on the naked shorts? The others are possibly scrambling for legitimate shares or are just out of luck and disclosure would be embarrassing. They may be delaying to buy time to obtain real shares.

Just after the name change in Feb the share price rose dramatically. The volume was not impressive though. Could this have been the first scramble to obtain shares? The explanations that some have been given for the delay are pretty lame. In this time of electronic shares there should be no excuses.

I am with TD Waterhouse and the shares were there after the first week which is acceptable. TD apparently has more pull than Scott-trade or E-trade.

Woodstock