Apple Inc. (AAPL) Shares Worth $1B Could Break Rochdale Securities

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is hurting the small investment firm, Rochdale Securities. We reported earlier how Rochdale Securities had lost a big amount on a botched trade of Apple stock. We just had no idea at that time how big this trade was. It appears it was $1 billion big. According to details, a trader at Rochdale meant to buy 165,000 shares in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Somehow the actual order that went through bought a staggering 1.65 million shares of AAPL, the corresponding price falls close to a billion dollars.

 Apple Inc. (AAPL) Shares Worth $1B Could Break Rochdale Securities

The mistake has almost crippled Rochdale, a firm with only $3.5 million in capital. After the huge amount of shares were bought in the last weeks of October, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) dove down in the stock market and has lately fallen below $590. The fall in price resulted in losses of millions of dollars for the company. Rochdale is now seeking help from the Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to rescue itself from a possible demise. The available options for salvation is an inflow of cash from investors or a buyout. Rochdale  does not buy positions in equities based on its own capital, but rather advises clients on investments and thus uses their cash to acquire stakes. Dick Bove, a reputed bank analyst has been working at Rochdale since 2009.

According to DealBook NYT, the errant trader was David Miller. Miller has been unreachable and has not been spotted in the firm’s offices since the infamous incident took place. Miller was employed at Rochdale since 2009 and has previously worked at Ladenberg Thalman; Punk, Ziegel & Company; and M.H. Meyerson. When the news of the errant trade was released in last week, Rochdale’s president, Daniel Crowley told media that the firm had negative capital as a result.

We would just like to mention here, that the number of shares that were bought mistakenly surpasses the share of investors like David Einhorn and Steven Mandel, whose largest holding is in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Till the end of June quarter, Greenlight Capital and Lone Pine Capital owned 1.45 and 1.4 million shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock.

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