Yeah, so far...but I hear rumblings that "they" may want to add all the stocks. That would be horrible for Goldman, so I doubt it will happen. Don
The SEC has all ready announce that they are going to do a review of the shorting rules as they presently stand. This sounds like they are posturing themselves to implement some changes as it were to the short sale rules?
First it was the pattern day trading ruling, and now this. Anyone get the feeling that the SEC is against day trading stocks ? It looks like forex, futures and options will be the only viable day trading vehicles. Day trading stocks will be left to the elite wallstreet crowd only.
The problem is most of the prime brokers don't support the product because it interferes with their Stock borrow/stock loan business (50 billion dollar business). We have been getting better traction in the last couple of months but it is nothing compared to what is trading overseas. Your are right it should be doing much better. Take the fact that your effective borrow rate is 100 basis points over the benchmark (does your clearing firm use Fed Fund or Libor?) when using SSF. The real question is why are traders and investor paying so much to their clearing firms when they could be doing better using SSF?
Hope they ban short selling like Japan. That will make life lot easier for people to invest and keep their invested capital safe and secure. Who likes to swim with the sharks all the time?
The uptick rule was repealed roughly a year ago. EWJ (iShares MSCI Japan Index) 1 year return: -12.73% SPY (US S&P 500 Depository Rcpts) 1 year return: -13.65% Almost identical performance, during a decidely down period. And you want to change everything for approx. 1% difference - which is almost certainly noise and is not at all compoundable? Dude, we had major financial institutions that lent money to people without checking their W2s to verify income. This, to put it gently, was a poor business practice for a major lender. And now this poor business practice is causing them to lose a lot of money. No "uptick rule" is going to change any of that. We then had major financial institutions who decided securitize and trade and hold securities that were tied to these mortgages on the sole belief that real estate in the U.S. cannot go through a prolonged sell off. It was a faulty premise. And now they are suffering losses because they made massive bets that were tied to that faulty premise. No "uptick rule" is going to change any of that either. You may want to redefine the "sharks" as the nutty CEOs and senior mgt. who got the institutions (and ultimately the economy)into this big mess in the first place. CEOs making millions and millions and millions of dollars to ultimately make loans to people w/o verifying their income is okay by you, but a short seller is ... "bad" ... ? Incredible.
Ban short selling just like Japan did years ago. The NIKKEI has been at one third of its high for the last two decades. The NIKKEI is now where it was 22 years ago. Awesome performance enhancement! Negative fundamentals mean nothing. It is best for the government to manipulate the stock markets, not to create a positive economic environment. That's what dictatorships have to do. Brilliant. No pessimist shall be tolerated. The markets will never fall again. It will be different this time. It's a new paradigm.
EXACTLY. Just take the damn rule out then. I'm all for shorting, but you can't afford to naked short banks to 0. The whole macroeconomic concept is too fragile. IMO shorting should be legal, however it should be completely re-done. It keeps guys like Enron, Worldcom, LU and the rest of the liars accountable. BTW: This is only a temporary hold on shorting, correct?