I’ve seen claims that having settled funds doesn’t matter, that the brokerage must keep collateral at the clearinghouse and they cannot use customer’s money to do it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25981493. The clearinghouse suddenly demanded a lot more collateral for that stock (because its eventual value is so uncertain) and a lot of brokers couldn’t or didn’t want to meet it.
They also didn’t want to say anything that might give an impression of being insolvent (especially when it isn’t true).
They also didn’t want to say anything that might give an impression of being insolvent (especially when it isn’t true).