I also believe the shorting component of the overall mess is about lack of enforcement on naked shorting and related manipulation. Lack of enforcement is by gov and business, as this article from Mar 07 shows: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/b...gin&adxnnlx=1221938013-tlAUxmpprn6Ykunj2E4FtA I believe legitimate shorting to be essential for healthy markets, and I don't care about an uptick, providing it applies to all components in the game, including specialists and MM's.