That was a rookie fund manager's move, using your most liquid asset to fund your least liquid.
In the olden days proprietary traders/stock jobbers/proto-market makers would keep their share and bond certificates in a box—hence short against the box etc. And in that box the most speculative, least-liquid-in-a-crash certificates were on top ready to be tossed into the maw of a descending market, with the highest quality, most liquid shares at the bottom of the box.
It was a tell as to either the individual trader's finances or to the depth of a downturn to see certs from the bottom of the box coming onto the market.
As a side note, you can still get your stock in certificate form but it will cost you at least $500 per cert. The powers that be, Depository Trust, the brokers et al. really prefer you don't ask for the paper.
Anyhoo, from Reuters viaa Channel News Asia, November 12:
TOKYO :SoftBank's shares slid as much as 10 per cent on Wednesday after the $5.8 billion sale of its stake in Nvidia highlighted the growing funding demands it faces to bankroll its "all-in" bet on ChatGPT creator OpenAI and other investments.
The conglomerate needs to fund a $22.5 billion follow-on investment in OpenAI, is acquiring chipmaker Ampere in a $6.5 billion deal and has agreed to buy the robotics business of Swiss group ABB for $5.4 billion.Analyst Mary Pollock at CreditSights estimates SoftBank has committed to at least $41 billion in recent spending on investments and purchases. Its cash position totalled 4.2 trillion yen ($27.86 billion) at the end of September.
SoftBank's cash needs in the current quarter are "substantial", Pollock wrote in a note.
"Though SBG's liquidity position has improved relative to when it issued its hybrids in October, we still estimate it will need to be proactive funding its recent (more than) $41 billion investment spend," she wrote....
....MUCH MORE
