Otto had realized that United Copper had 105% short interest – i.e., 450,000 shares were trading, yet only 425,000 had been issued, the rest borrowed.
But Heinze miscalculated. Every one of the twenty brokers could find the stock from buyers other than Heinze. No one defaulted.
Irritatingly, there is no explanation of the miscalculation, or how the 25,000 share difference was made up.
All I am left with is the knowledge that one group of speculators went bust rather than a different group of speculators, and the conclusion that the crypto market will be regulated because it exhibits some vague similarities to this incident in 1907; no discussion at all of the 2008 financial crisis, which seems highly relevant.