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Strategies & Market Trends : Ask Vendit Off-Topic Questions -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rrufff who wrote (3375)	1/2/2005 6:00:44 PM
From: Walkingshadow	Respond to of 8752

I know there's a lot of sleazy things, some legal, some not, that go on in that arena. The link Reid posted details some of these, and as you say, they often involve foreign markets. That was basically my understanding: that shorting BB stocks (and very thinly traded stocks in general) is for practical reasons rarely possible for retailers like myself. In that link, however, they do state it is essentially illegal. This makes little sense to me, and they do not explain the statement. I think maybe they mean that the most types of shares that might be borrowed for shorting purposes would result in illegal shorting if one tried to do it because of the restrictions on the share classes, but NOT that shorting those stocks is illegal. Regardless, as you say, it is not easily done. T

To: rrufff who wrote (3375)	1/2/2005 11:54:27 PM
From: sandintoes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8752

Hey rruff Lots of interesting information, thanks.. It's not easy for us retail investors to do it but not impossible. Hedge funds, as well as corporate insiders, do it all the time. The naked short controversy, and the issue of insiders selling restricted shares, have nothing to do with whether or not it is illegal. It's rather a question of whether they actually are required to actually find shares to lend to the shorter and whether or not those shares are legal and unrestricted. What is a retail investor?