Trump lashes out at British hedge fund for betting against Truth Social

 Donald Trump has lashed out at a British hedge fund that has placed a $100m (£75.4m) bet against his social media company.

Trump Media and Technology, the parent company of Mr Trump’s Truth Social platform, has accused UK-based Qube Research & Technologies of “potential market manipulation” after the hedge fund shorted its shares on Wall Street.

Qube, which employs more than 340 people in London, last week revealed a $105m short position in Trump Media – which is 53pc owned by Mr Trump.

Short selling involves betting on a decline in a company’s share price by borrowing shares from another investor before selling them with the hope of buying them back at a lower price to pocket the difference.

On Thursday, Mr Trump’s company flagged Qube’s trading to the US stock market regulator, claiming trading patterns suggested it was “suspicious”.

In a memo sent to Mark Uyeda, acting chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Trump Media alleged that Qube could have been involved in “illegal naked short selling” of its shares.

While short-selling is legal, naked short-selling involves betting a stock will fall without first borrowing the shares and can be illegal in the US. Trump Media has asked the SEC to investigate.

The company said trading data “raise critical questions about the timing and methods used in Qube’s trading activities” because the short position disclosed by Qube were less than the total short positions disclosed on Trump Media.

The attack on Qube ramps up a war waged by Mr Trump’s company against hedge fund bosses who have bet against the group.

Devin Nunes, Trump Media chief executive, last year called for an investigation by US stock exchange Nasdaq into 13 firms he said were shorting Trump Media shares.

He cited Wall Street giant Citadel Securities, prompting the company to label Mr Nunes a “proverbial loser” who the president “would have fired on The Apprentice”.

Qube was founded by Frenchman Pierre-Yves Morlat and has become one of London’s largest hedge funds since forming in 2018, with $28bn of assets under management.

It made headlines last year when a mistaken regulatory filing said it had amassed a £700m bet against HSBC, which it claimed was an error.

Qube has previously said its trading positions are driven by mathematical models and do not reflect any specific views on the underlying performance of a company. It shorts the stock of dozens if not hundreds of companies around the world.

Short selling, particularly of bank shares, has often been politically sensitive in Europe but is widely accepted on Wall Street as part and parcel of the market. Supporters say it helps to root out fraud within the market.

Qube’s position has come to light because of UK rules that require investment companies to make public which companies they are betting against if the short positions rise above a certain level. The UK is shortly due to get rid of disclosure rules on short-selling, meaning the public will not know which hedge funds have bet against British companies.

Trump Media was launched by Mr Trump in 2021 after he was banned from Twitter after the Jan 6 Capitol riots. At the time, he said he was setting up the platform to “stand up to the tyranny of big tech”. It listed last year with an $8bn price tag.

Qube and Mr Morlat were contacted for comment. Qube has previously said its positions “do not reflect a specific view on the fundamental of the company”.