I have been using options for years. Please tell me how the options market, and it's functioning, have anything to do with shorting. Seriously, it's a non sequitur.
I have long held the belief that shorting should be made illegal (as it's too easy to counterfeit shares electronically). In it's stead, short "equivalent" positions could be fashioned via the options market, without ever disrupting the actual supply of available shares. The options writer is still, always, responsible for delivering the underlying, regardless of price. It is impossible to fraudulently counterfeit shares in this manner, as the option only represents a promise to deliver (and has an expiration date). Thus, there can never be an accumulation of electronically manufactured supply, of the underlying, which can not be said for short selling.
Instead, I would say the options market is the only fair and honest way to bet on the direction of price movement, without disrupting the pool of available shares which, afterall, do represent the tangible equity of a company. Shorting is a silly distortion of this fact; created in the name of "liquidity" and, represent a truly dishonest clearing system. |
