[cwhiz]

Your position is that the price-finding function of the market is the ability to short. This isn't required in ANY other market.

If there are more buyers than sellers, the price goes up. If there are more sellers than buyers, the price goes down.

We don't need uninvested third parties literally gambling on the outcome of the above. The market will work just perfectly fine with just buying and selling.

[jeffbee]

In another kind of market I can just enter the market. If the price of chairs goes bananas because someone has decided to buy and hoard all the chairs, I can make chairs, therefore increasing supply and restoring a normal price.

In the stock market the number of shares of each issue is fixed, so that doesn't work. This is why the short side is important for price finding. They inject supply into markets even when the long side is trying to manipulate the price up.