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Strategies & Market Trends : Roger's 1998 Short Picks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: F. Lynn who wrote (9914)	6/11/1998 3:42:00 PM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18691

When you short a stock, your broker looks in its own inventory to see if there is stock to loan. If there is not, they may turn you down. They can also check with other brokers and try to borrow stock from them. I suspect the discount on-line brokers short from their own supply then give up if they are all gone. E*Trade hasn't had AMZN to short for months now, for example. Datek seems to have shares most often.

To: F. Lynn who wrote (9914)	6/11/1998 10:24:00 PM
From: Hank	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18691

I don't know. I think Datek makes it's own rules sometimes. They took one stock I had off margin status once (it was still well above $5) and nearly forced me into a margin call when all other brokers I checked with said the stock was still marginable in their firms. When I repeatedly questioned Datek on this, they were unable to offer a satisfactory answer. I think they did it to force a trade. Fortunately, that has only happened to me once.