Regarding brokers who report that a stock can't be shorted:
It won't help too many people, but I've heard something interesting regarding this, from a gentleman who posts on SI and other places. He daytrades out of an office set up for that purpose, and explains that before he hits the button to short an issue, he is supposed to check with the bookkeeping office to make sure that it can be shorted. However, sometimes he "forgets" to check this out ahead of time. He almost always closes out his positions at the end of the day, so that by the time the bookkeeping office sees that he's shorted something that they can't borrow, he's already out of it. I think a few times he's taken something home, and I'm not sure what they've done to him.
I know this won't help many people, as most of you have real jobs and don't have the time to go trade in a daytraders office. But I thought it was interesting, that there are some people who can short such issues, even if it's in an unofficial manner. The only other people who can make money on the short side from garbage such as AVCO and GMAI are market makers, who can always short, regardless of whether a stock is marginable or above 5. |
