May 10, 2009
The lion's share of these comments are probably from those who are long the stock market, which would make sense. Why would you want anyone to short (sell) a stock one may be long putting pressure on the listed price? Never-the-less, short selling has its place. It can act as a hedge. If the short seller is wrong in his assumptions and the company is truly worth investing in it can drive the price of the stock higher, and higher, and higher. Also, unless one limits the inverse indexes, you will still have lots short pressure on classes of stocks, if there are heavy bets placed on the stock. Personally, I don't think the uptick rule will change that much but I do hope it is not done for the wrong reason which would be reverse market manipulation. With no limits on long buying why should there be limits on short selling? People, as investors hope stocks go up. And why not allow them to "invest" if they think a stock is going down? Maybe you can only go long a stock if it is ticking down?