Talk about misguided politicians. This article: http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001/09/24/news/wires/shortsell_re/ describes how some lawmakers think this recent decline has been caused by short-selling and they want to stop it, at least temporarily. I personally have voted democratic, but this is just too much. I hope the SEC chairman knows better.
lol.. leave it to a democrat.. probably thinks Bin Ladin shorted the Naz all the way down from 5000.. i just hope they dont go on tv and tell old people that the evil republicans want to let Bin Ladin short sell their 401k's down to zero.. what nonsense.. -qwik
Incredible!!! It wouldn't surprise me if they strike a compromise where ONLY independent traders would be prohibited from short selling. Let's face it, the > 25K independent traders will be the politically weakest group remaining after 9/28 when the <25K traders are gone. The way this article links short selling with terrorists, the Washington spin doctors could make this congressman, and others, look like real patriots by banishing the evil short-sellers. It's always more rules, more laws, more regulations, more restrictions. I see it happening at every level of government. We are strangling ourselves in reaction to hyper-inflated paranoia. I'm NOT just talking about the reaction to the WTC attacks. Our freedoms are disappearing at an escalating rate...and when they are gone they don't come back. Comtemporary Americans don't comprehend 1/2 of the intent of the creators of this country. my .02 cents ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- qwiktrade - you are correct to see the humor in this idea, and Sam - your obvious logic is irrefutable. But I fear it doesn't matter what's right or wrong, only whether it makes a good story for the media which can make some politician appear to be a hero.
there's a sell and a buy, 2 transactions. You take away the sell, and you take away the buy as well. The market needs short sellers buying, it keeps markets liquid. Sam
Short selling is a normal and important part of trading and investing. As traders, we don't even question that logic. I can't believe how ignorant people can be about a subject and still have such strong opinions about it. Don't they know they're making fools of themselves? They can't even grasp such a basic idea as the market has no personality or moral values. There's no one to lobby on behalf people who go short, and therefore the ignorance overwhelms the truth. If they wanted truly efficient and fair markets, they'd get rid of the uptick rule too.
Now all we need is to temporary halt short selling, which may eventually follow a permanent suspention and while we're at it, may be put more restrictions on futures and options market and may be on top of it add few more rules to daytrading qualified 25K accounts,etc. I know I'm a bit over posting lately, but deadline 09.28 is so damn close. Thanks for listening, Bob
lescor, Short selling is a normal and important part of trading and investing. As traders, we don't even question that logic. Unfortunately that last statement is just not true (I wish it were). Remember back a couple of weeks ago, while the markets were shut down. Controversy raged on this board (and most trading boards), with emotional outbursts claiming that short selling was hurting the market, grossly unethical, and downright unpatriotic. So if many traders don't grasp that shorting is an important part of trading and investing how can we expect the general public to?
Good point Magna. I believe short selling really got a bad name during the crash of 1929 as it was blamed for much of the decline. If you read jesse livermore's book of trading in the early 1900s, short selling was described as a completely natural event, on the same basis as going long. The general public both bought and shorted in the bucket shops. Then since the formation of the SEC and the new uptick rules introduced in the 1930s, short selling has always had this negative perception.
Magna, At the time those debates were going on I was actually surprised at the amount of ignorance on the subject here. I should have said "informed traders" accept this logic. Supply and demand is..... supply and demand. It's as simple as that to me and I've never understood the morality that people attatch to it.
i have a better idea.. lets petition congress to disallow companies to report negative information.. no more earnings warnings.. no more bad news of any kind.. if a company has bad earnings, they simply arent allowed to report it.. or better yet, lets halt trading in that stock until they have something positive to report.. after all, we cant allow bad news to unfairly punish our economy.. -qwik