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Non-Tech : Anthony Returned the Donation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Qone0 who wrote (39)	5/25/2000 3:03:00 PM
From: WTMHouston	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 445

Robert: Your short sell the car hypothetical is pretty close to what happens with a lease: sell the car now, buy it back later at a lower price after it has depreciated. Of course, in this comparison the seller (lessor) is presently selling what he owns (although it is usually indirectly mortgaged on borrowed funds) rather than borrowed from others. All (or at least the vast majority) shorting would end if everyone held their stock in certificate form rather than in street name at their brokerage form. No one controls this except those people who are long on a stock. Your severe comments regarding shorters apply with the greatest force to the same market makers that allow you to have a liquid market for your long purchases. Evil or not, and it is not, it is a necessary component of an efficient and liquid market. With respect to paying for the use of the borrowed shares, some mutual funds do get paid to make their shares available for loan. Individuals just have such small positions (as a general rule) that it does not make economic sense to do it across the board. Those same funds can really pinch short sellers, however, by simply calling for the return of their shares, which they can do at ANY time. The market is not, has never been, and should not be, IMO, a place where subjective moral values control anything. There are appropriate places for those, but it is not in the market. Rather, it is a place where people gamble based on their evaluations of risk and reward. I have always found it a hypocritical argument for people to use morals with respect to any (non-criminal) issue in the market since the entire premise of the markets is one of risk and reward: i.e., gambling. One final point, shorting is not "stealing" and any such argument is about as far from the truth as anything gets. Last time I checked, stealing was illegal. Anyone whose long shares get borrowed have allowed those shares to get borrowed. They can prevent it (if they chose to). That they know in advance that it could happen, that they have a way to prevent it from ever happening, and that they have chosen not to do so makes your "stealing" claims specious, at best. If you want to store your ladder at my house and I say to you in advance: (1) I will allow you to store your ladder at my house, but you must understand that if you do I will loan it to people, they will not pay you anything for borrowing it, and I will not advise you when it is loaned; (2) when they borrow it, they may sell it and I may make some money when they sell it for helping them to sell it, but if it is sold and you want it back at some later time, they will immediately replace it; and (3) you may keep people from borrowing it by putting a lock on the door to the storage room I will keep it in. If you know all of this in advance, just how is it stealing when you leave the ladder at my house, place no lock on the door and I then allow it to be loaned to someone else and they sell it? Yes, this is a rhetorical question because the simple answer is it is neither stealing nor is it immoral or unethical in ANY sense of the words. Troy

To: Qone0 who wrote (39)	5/25/2000 5:49:00 PM
From: Dr. Voodoo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 445

Does one have to go to school to be as perceptive as you? Or can I just work at it alot and say, in a few years, whammo, shear financial genius? Did you get all of this information from reading books? Or do you normally burn them? Good trading. V

To: Qone0 who wrote (39)	5/26/2000 1:11:00 PM
From: Mama Bear	Respond to of 445

"You steal peoples stock and sell it. " I borrow their property with their explicit written permission. Please read your brokerage account agreement. "So can I borrow your car and sell it?" I said we could work out such an arrangement. This question is asked and answered. I average 500% ROI in penny stocks. Well, it won't be long before we see you on the Forbes 400 list with all the other folks who have made fortunes gambling on penny stocks, lol. "SEC actions are not against longs. " Take a look at the list, and see which side of the table is being prosecuted. "Truth hurts don`t it? " You wouldn't know the truth if it jumped up and bit you on the behind. You have my pity. Regards, Barb