February 22, 2010
I would like to suggest there is no need for short selling in our markets. If an investment turns out to be a bad, the equity will lose value as investors sell the investment. Depending on circumstances, the investment may actually work out and turn around in the longer term. The markets should be allowed to work with normal buying and selling without the additional ability added for institutions and others to add selling pressure to the investment via short selling to make a quick buck. We saw many examples of the pressure short selling could bring to a company's stock price and how quickly it happened in the fall of 2008 when financial institutions were exposed to massive short selling. Short selling was suspended for a period of time to eliminate the additional pressure on companies as they were allowed to work through their issues. Companies should not have to be exposed to this type of artificial financial pressure when they are already under pressure from adverse advents. I believe this also unnecessarily adds to market volatility in times of trouble and/or uncertainty. I think the market should be allowed to work without short selling.