loss on VXX trade from sudden share sale halt
I am writing to bring to your attention an issue I encountered in March 2022 regarding the sudden halting of sales and issuance of VXX shares (iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN), which has resulted in significant financial loss for me.
On February 24 & 25, 2022, I opened a short position on VXX for a total of 588 shares at an average weighted price of $26.443
3 weeks later, on March 14th 2022, Barclays announced it had temporarily suspended the sales and issuance of VXX shares.
This led the price to spike by nearly 60% by the next day which is when I was forced to close the position for lack of margin and fear of further losses.
Accordingly, I suffered a loss of $5,727.14 on closing the 588 shares position at average weighted price of $36.183.
The bank’s failure to more quickly disclose that it had exceeded the number of VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) that it had permission to sell violated federal securities law.
This failure led to the sudden halt of share sales and ultimately the price spike.