Author:  "Paul Herman" 
Date:    09/17/2000  2:39 PM

Subject: Short sales

If you were to sell a car you didn't own, you would go to jail.  Why should you 
be allowed to sell stock that you don't own.
     
Short selling should be eliminated completely, in my opinion.  If there is, 
indeed, a defensible reason for short selling (I keep hearing "liquidity" for 
market makers), then the rule should be that the short positions have to be 
closed at the end of each trading week.
     
The way I understand the current system, on the OTC BB it is possible to 
continually short a stock without ever having to cover.  Market Makers have used
this to try to drive a company into bankruptcy and to deny them access to the 
credit markets that many small companies depend on.  The system is not working, 
and should be radically changed!!!