Energy Margin Calls- Chesapeake CEO Forced To Sell All His Stock

As people following our energy situation are aware, many if not most energy stocks are down 60-70% or more from their summer highs. In a bizarre but not completely surprising announcement after the close (we knew someone was liquidating), Chesapeake, (the US largest natural gas producer) CEO Aubrey McClendon has involuntarily been liquidated out of his rougly 30,000,000 remaining shares of CHK in the past 3 days due to margin calls. CHK, which in July was over $70 per share, hit as low as $11.99 today, and then had a 38% rally to close at $16.52 on 5 times normal volume. We don't typically comment on individual stocks or price movements on TOD but this and related developments could have a dramatic impact on the industry's future - CHK and XTO in addition to being top 2 gas producers also operate over 12% of our nat gas rigs.... [read full story]