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To: Poet who wrote (2315)	9/15/2001 10:58:39 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 51709

From a post on MarketAttack -- defending the shorts Message 16352001 Why the Shorters will support this Market better than any other investors For this analysis, it's most simple to understand and consider shorts as guaranteed potential buyers of securities. A shorter simply does the same transactions as normal investor, but the Shorter does them in reverse order. The Short sells the stock first and then buys a later. Though the order is reversed the goals are still the same. Both longs and shorts attempt to buy low and sell high. The average consumer or the average investor may not have the courage to invest with all of this uncertainty, however the Shorters will. The first buyers and the continued buyers will be the shorts covering their long-term shorts from the now concluded bubble cycle. Alan Greenspan knows this which makes it all the more unlikely for an emergency rate cut in, he will wait to toss that in October. Beginning right after the first selling pressure, and then continuing through the next Fed meeting the market will gain strength. And this strength will be on the backs of the shorts. As these hedge funds and individuals complete the cycle of their profitable trades. Many Shorters could even feel patriotic about this action. But if you look at where the market was on Monday, the actions of covering and shorts buying their stocks back what if begun regardless. I believe the bombings are without a doubt a defining market bottom and a defining capitulation. Though our collective anger may remove urges to panic, our anger won’t make investors purchase into uncertainty. But that bottom after the open will inspire Shorters to begin to buy back their stocks. The shorter much like a wolf, is a much misunderstood animal. The wolf does not create the environment, the wolf reacts to the environment. Though some of speculated that bubble might be wise to attempt to restrict short sales this would be foolhardy and stupid. You can not take a balanced system and remove parts of it, and have the same check and balances needed. The market is designed to be rapidly self correcting.

To: Poet who wrote (2315)	9/15/2001 11:08:37 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 51709

I was on the jagged edge of pissed off yesterday and took a much-needed SI break last night. A break is good. I hope I didn't contribute too much to your state of mind. I know you've been getting a lot of abuse about shorting. I was trying to communicate my anti-shorting point of view in a constructive and caring way. I can only explain my own point of view. We all have to make our own moral choices by whatever criteria we value. I have a slight recollection of WWII. I remember ration cards, ripping sheets into strips and rolling them for bandages, separating the foil from the paper backing on cigarette and chewing gum wrappers for recycling. WWII was the last war in which our people were expected to make everyday sacrifices for our country as part of their ongoing life style. Gas lines during the Gulf War were just a small and transitory taste. You know me well enough to know I'm not a flag waver. The boys down at the VFW would probably consider me quite unpatriotic. I don't own a flag, I zealously oppose a flag burning amendment, I've argued on these boards that it's silly and inappropriate to play the National Anthem at football games. I don't place much stock in the trappings of patriotism. I didn't even bother to see if there were any candles in my neighborhood last evening, let alone light one, for example. And I question my country all the time. That said, we are at war, one that may be more like WWII that what we've been accustomed to, and there are certain things that citizens do and don't do in wartime. The enemy has attacked our country, our way of life, and particularly our financial underpinnings. They would like nothing better than to see the stock market and/or the financial and communications systems crash on Monday just like the towers crashed on Tuesday. I will not do anything to give aid and comfort to them. Even if cost me the rent money. In normal circumstances you can argue that shorting is healthy. These are not normal circumstances. The last thing we need on Monday is for the market to go down. It's as simple as that. Selling, redemptions, shorting make the market go down when the country needs it to remain stable. I will not contribute to instability. I'm sure there will be individuals and commercial traders who have other priorities and other loyalties who will. They have to deal with their own consciences and I have to deal with mine. I won't give aid and comfort to the enemy. Period. Karen

To: Poet who wrote (2315)	9/15/2001 11:23:10 AM
From: bonnuss_in_austin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 51709

Hi, P, X, Rambi, E, Karen et al ... Sigh. I hope everyone feels a little better today, anyway. This is a wonderful place, X. You're very kind to post such soothing thoughts i.e. 'tolerance,' etc. I would like to add to your knowledgable post, here, Poet about shorting ... echoing your comment about commercial vs retail shorting activity ... I see here on SI very few retail investors who short or even trade put options. The vast majority of people here trade equities exclusively. Do you see that as well in your experience here and all of the threads with which you are familiar? I feel that this unfamiliarity/unwillingness with shorting and put options has tragically cost millions of people, however, their life savings, basically. I personally know four who lost more than $1 million each buying all the way down from NAZ 5000 'on the dips,' etc. Keeping the faith and hope alive putting their life savings on the line. Having faith in the fundamentals of the companies in which they invested. To see the stock values of these 'quality companies' fall 50-60-80 and even 90%. Sigh. Rambi: I blame the CIA. (don't laugh -- or go ahead and laugh, if you want to -g-) Certainly not the airlines. The airline communities are victims here in yet another terrible perspective. What I see is the gaping hole that somehow made it possible for known middle eastern terrorists to not only reside in the U.S, but acquire flight training from privately-run schools for months on end. How is this possible? How much money is spent to support the CIA -- anybody know? Another mystery to me is the air traffic control system. I haven't seen anything about what if anything the various air traffic control towers saw/action taken when each of these four planes veered dramatically off scheduled flight patterns. With such sophisticated state-of-the-art electronics surveillance/radar AND communcations I wonder if any sort of 'automtic' alert from air traffic to, like the FBI or Air Force is transmitted ... that sort of thing. bia