Oh dear : FSA bans short-selling

[HairyArsedBloke]

It will not put anyone off opening a long position as the way to close that position, as AtW rightly points out, is called ‘Selling’. It will harm the City in many ways; not least of all is the prospect of more, almost random and with short or no notice, introduction of regulation and restrictions.

There are potential abuses available in all forms of transaction. Should there be a ban on buying too, because ‘speculants’ could sell at a higher price and get a profit that way?

[ace00]

There are potential abuses available in all forms of transaction. Should there be a ban on buying too, because ‘speculants’ could sell at a higher price and get a profit that way?

Gordon will decide what your company is worth.

[HairyArsedBloke]

Questions are being asked. FT: Alphaville: 'HBOS: Where are the shorts'.

It's going to bite the snot goblin in the

[sasguru]

Let the fooking market decide who's efficient and who's not.
atw can fook off back to Russia and build his utopian state.
Oh hang on, it's been tried already

[Andy2]

So in the absence of shorting is it correct to assume that financial shares will move only one way - UP

BOOMED

[ThomasSoerensen]

So in the absence of shorting is it correct to assume that financial shares will move only one way - UP

BOOMED

they have not banned selling a long position with a loss yet, have they?

[AtW]

Let the fooking market decide who's efficient and who's not.

I don't think you even know what "efficient market" is - hint: it's not when you make shredload of money, this has nothing to do with efficiency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficie...ket_hypothesis

"In finance, the efficient-market hypothesis (EMH) asserts that financial markets are "informationally efficient", or that prices on traded assets, e.g., stocks, bonds, or property, already reflect all known information."

People who short are trying to manipulate the market - it's an artificial attempt to make money from nothing at the expense of long term investors.

[Dow Jones]

The long and short of it

TS, you may or may not know that long- and short-selling are both sides of the same coin. Unfortunately, the latter is much more lucrative, especially if engineered rumours start to prevail.
The HBOS downfall was caused by both shorting and unusual heavy selling by a no of institutions (most of which chose to operate via the same counterparty-often disguised-that was used for the shorting).
In my opinion and some of our traders I have spoken to, the HBOS shares should have been suspended - pending an enquiry whilst banning the practice - and - in order to prevent a potential run on savings that may have ensued - for the Gov't to intervene and buy a chunk of shares with a view of selling back when the markets have been steadied.
As SG said, the FSA once gain has proved to be a joke.