Getting rid of most 13Fs proves too unpopular even for someone with nothing to lose like Jay Clayton.

Readers, we have some exciting news: As of just under a month ago, Bill Ackman’s portfolio, uh, looked almost exactly the same as it did four months ago. No new names, a little less Lowe’s, a slight adjustment to Agilent, a hint of Hilton sold off.

Incredible, right? The sort of thing that makes you break for a moment of your busy day and take notice. Well, we’ve got even better news for you: This kind of breaking—and frankly groundbreaking—reporting won’t be going away anytime soon.

U.S. regulators are shelving a controversial plan to allow most hedge funds to keep their stock investments secret after public companies and other critics blasted the proposal as a major blow to market transparency…. While the SEC hasn’t publicly announced its decision to scrap the overhaul, some within the agency have been notified it’s dead, said the people who asked not to be named in discussing internal communications.

Jay Clayton’s relentless drive to inject a little opacity into the capital markets ran into an intractable wall of opposition, even from those it aimed to assist, and while Clayton & co. had the same emotional reaction to this wave of unpopularity as their fellow Trump appointees—slack-jawed incomprehension—they could not bring themselves to the true Trumpian conclusion, which would have to been push ahead anyway in a show of self-defeating defiance.

Inside the SEC, senior officials were surprised by the level of opposition, said the people…. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts did a tally of responses that the SEC received when the agency’s public comment deadline passed this month and the results were overwhelming: The regulator received 2,238 letters opposing the changes to 13F requirements and just 24 in favor.

Hedge Funds’ Shot at Keeping Stock Investments Secret Fades [Bloomberg]
Bill Ackman Reduces Lowe’s, Agilent Technologies and Hilton Worldwide Holdings [GuruFocus via Yahoo!]