May 6, 2009
The stock market should be a place where individuals can invest their assets in a company they believe will grow, which ultimately provides jobs and economic growth for the country. Instead, it has become no more than a Las Vegas style betting parlor. In todays market, the price of a stock has nothing to do with the underlying company. The price is manipulated by those whose only goal is to deceitfully and fraudulently harvest the money average working people.
The only positive argument I have heard for short selling is to provide a hedge against a long position. To achieve this, there is no reason that one investor can't sell another investor an insurance policy against future price movements. These insurance policies do not need to be directly linked to the stock certificates, only based on future price, thereby not directly impacting the stock price movements. There is no reason to allow short selling stock. In any other forum, selling something you do not own would be considered fraud.
You must create a market where people who go to work every day, and can not spend great amounts of time tracking the actions of robbers stalking their assets, can invest in their future. Again, there can be mechanisms set up where those who do not want to invest, rather want to gamble, can do so without directly impacting the price of the security. That price should ultimately be dictated by the performance of the company, not by the skill of the manipulators.