April 10, 2009
Short Sales should be eliminated. If people/firms want to hedge their bets they already have short and long term options (e.g. puts). The "ticker tape" should be reporting the purchase and sale of stock by owners. Today, you have hedge funds borrowing stock that they don't own, from brokerages that also don't own the stock. The brokerages are supposed to be custodians of the stock, but they are more interested in fee income than maintaining the fiduciary responsibility that they owe to their clients. If you want to allow short sales report them separately from sales and purchases by owners. We have allowed the clowns on Wall Street to turn our capital markets into a gigantic casino. The stock market is supposed to be a mechanism for providing funds to companies and to allow individuals to build wealth over time. Short sales do nothing but promote volatility and income for speculators and hedge funds. Clean up Wall Street. !!!!!!!