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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BWAC who wrote (51609)	9/6/2001 2:56:32 PM
From: Joseph Beltran	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

BWAC, One could also have the choice of paying a little less margin interest if he agreed that the brokerage could use his shares. I agree with you. As of right now we have essentially no choice.

To: BWAC who wrote (51609)	9/6/2001 3:16:40 PM
From: Math Junkie	Respond to of 70976

Think of it this way. When you open a margin account you are asking for the privilege of borrowing someone else's money to buy stock. What's the moral difference between that and borrowing some else's stock? If you were short because you thought the market was too high, the money you had on deposit could be getting lent to margin buyers to help bid up the market, thus working against your interests. So you see it works both ways. BTW, the house analogy breaks down because when you borrow shares, it doesn't matter whether you return the same shares or different shares of the same stock. With a house, if someone borrowed your house and returned a different house, it most certainly would matter, even if the houses were identical. Also, when your shares are borrowed, it doesn't stop you from doing what you want with your shares. If you want sell them, the broker will just borrow somebody else's shares. If someone borrowed your house and sold it, it could interfere with your use of the house. So the analogy is very poor. In any case, you do have a choice even with a margin account. Simply take delivery on the stock certificates.