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Non-Tech : LOCK (Saf-T-Lok) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DavidCG who wrote (711)	6/4/1998 12:56:00 PM
From: Susan Saline	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1039

>>>Because there are a lot of OTC:BB stocks sub $1.00 I'd love to short right now... and if your genious wealth of knowledge can guide me.. by all means do so. LOCK is not a BB stock

To: DavidCG who wrote (711)	6/4/1998 1:39:00 PM
From: Anaxagoras	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1039

<<Gee, inspire me with your wealth of knowledge, son. Please relay to me one american brokerage that allows you as an individual to short stocks below $5?>> Oh, brother. First you start hyping this worthless piece of crap. Next you come out and mislead folks by making a pronouncement that's flat out wrong. And now you expect some help after an obnoxious post. I really am going to have to speak to your mother about this. Here's a bone or two for ya. Listen up. First things first: it's not particularly unusual to short < $5 if you have a good firm. I realize you're new to things, but let's start with a big house you may have heard of: Charles Schwab. Ring a bell? Now for some basics which will be brief since I don't have time to give you a full run down, and you sure haven't given me much incentive to do so (a simple please does wonders). House rules on margining are distinct from Fed rules (Federal Reserve is in charge of decisions as to marginability and maintains the list of marginable securities which you can find regularly updated on the Web). As long as an issue is on it, it's in principle borrowable, and thus shortable. Now, in the case of a piece of crap like LOCK that's less than $5, it's probably no longer marginable at a place like Schwab due to house rules. However, because it's on the Fed list, Schwab's stock loan dept. can borrow the shares from appropriate sources where it is marginable, and loan you those shares to short. It gets more and more difficult to short a stock the farther below $5 it goes because the farther it falls, the fewer the number of houses that have it marginable, not to mention the fact that collateral requirements go up making it less attractive to hold short (going from 100% to a minimum of $2.50 a share once it drops below this point, i.e. a list on the Fed list that's $1.00 will still require $2.50 in collateral). There are little details I'm leaving out, but that's the simplified explanation. Call a broker that knows something and have them explain it to you. If s/he's worth her salt, s/he'll be able to do so. Think next time before sticking your foot in your mouth again. I wonder if you'll admit your mistake? :-) You're welcome. Anaxagoras