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To: Petrol who wrote (178747)	7/10/2002 1:45:47 PM
From: Horgad	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Speaking of shorting and certificates, there have been short busting crusades done in the past. Shares can't be shorted if they are in your possession. They have to be in a brokers possession so they can loan them out to someone who sells them (IE goes short). Your broker may not even have your shares if he has loaned them out to a short. It is all kind of scary if you think about it. It is all just numbers in a database unless you have the certificates. Anyways to bust the shorts, longs have gotten organized and requested their certificates from their brokers which forces the shorts to cover because you can't short unless there are shares to borrow. Also I think you can tell your broker that you don't want your shares loaned out. To answer your question, if you are short, you are likely at the mercy of your broker and his/her records.