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To: Michael Watkins who wrote (4374)	11/12/2000 1:37:22 PM
From: bobby is sleepless in seattle	Respond to of 8925

<Well I personally think that people buy when they shouldn't because of greed and learned behaviour; why they don't short? Could be fear. Could be that learned behaviour. Some feel its some how unnatural or dirty. Some don't take the time to learn about it, although not like there's a lot to learn.> Being unnatural or dirty, yes I clearly remember those emotions when initially entering this trading arena!...your connotation of fear, sure, I can see that... Learned behavior,,,probably, as i've conditioned myself over the thousands of trades for long purposes or to stand aside,,,only recently testing the waters to short, to modify my behavior... Within my "real world" sphere, several succcessful traders with varying degrees or experience practiced the chameleon approach only to find themselves back to either long positons or standing aside as the only colors of choice. And maybe this alone has influenced my trading tactics?...! as far as taking the time to learn about shorting, that's what i've done for the past year and found that the information appears to be no different from long positions. Pivot points in general guide my long trades, and failure to setup for long, gives way for short setup. appreciate the information shared on this subject!

To: Michael Watkins who wrote (4374)	11/13/2000 1:53:36 AM
From: SirRealist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8925

Michael; when a stock rises, I may buy at 40 and sell to you at 50. You sell it to the next guy at 60. Money flow comes in, everyone makes money till someone decides it's too expensive. In shorting, money is flowing out of a stock. I think the perception (speaking for myself at least) that when you profit from that larger group that's losing money on their long positions, essentially, you're making money off other folk's misery. So yeah, somehow that seems dirty. In reality, driving a stock up to unnatural valuations (the greed factor) tricks those at the peaks, so really, the ethics don't differ much. Sure, we can set aside the ethics of each and objectively state logically and objectively that a good trader sets practical valuations and simply identifies the likelihood of a price movement, then trades to best advantage. An ethical purist would then point out that many NASDAQ stocks still haven't surrendered their overvalued bubble valuations yet, so any notion of a 'correct' valuation is skewed to the greed side, so ethics matter after all. <GG> Personally, I just trade to make a living. I have a ways to go to reach a comfortable level so it's not hard to defend the ethics of the time & work I put into my trade vs. stiffing anyone... though I draw the line at P&D. So I simply go long as rises begin and short at guessed-at peaks, and leave the ethical decisions to the Gods. And ultimately, what changed my mind about the ethics? Desire for gain in a corrective mkt, so in a sense, greed overrules ethics. Put another way, however, common sense wins over butting your head into an unyielding wall, too. <GG> But my point is, I think others hesitate to short because of the sense that profiting while hearing others moan about losses in the same stock can be disheartening.