SEC is going after the short sellers of the financials, as if that was the reason that these stocks were down huge, not their massive writedowns and broken business models. Taking away the short sellers is not going to stop these banks from going bankrupt, the only thing that will stop that are more bailouts, which are coming of course. Any bank bigger than Indymac is too big to fail. Socialize losses, capitalize gains. CFTC going after Optiver as if that they were rigging the whole crude oil joint, causing the so-called oil bubble. Going after little ole Optiver, as if that was the root cause of high oil prices. Blame the speculators! Supply and demand don't matter! Its just speculators causing everyone to pay higher gas prices. America still doesn't know how to take responsibilty for a massive drunken orgy of a credit bubble, and a nonexistent sustainable energy policy, its endless witch hunts, bailouts, and finger pointing. In the end, the thing that suffers the most is the dollar. The emperor has no clothes.
This current frenzy over short selling saddens me. People who think short selling is the cause of the recent market downturns are deluding themselves. After all, the big banks and hedge funds have had mechanisms to sell on downticks for years. This is not a new development to any of the players that impact the market. As a result, fighting over the uptick rule is just a waste of time.
i remember Al Michaels the Monday Night Football commentator being interviewed about his trading a few years ago, jovially saying how profitable short selling had been for him, then quickly saying 'short selling isn't un-American you know'
If there is a bubble they blame it on specs, if it is crashing they blame it on specs. You can never win.
I would like to thank your Marxist government institutions for providing better prices to sell short at.