[quote]

Isn’t that argument somewhat strange or dishonest? To paraphrase you: I‘d rather have naked shorting and the associated manipulation and problems with it than better price discovery for stockholders. In your example, the stockholder isn’t protected either, only an equity firm derives profit from this information. In a more ideal world the stockholders themselves would do this due diligence, which is something that already happens. Also there’s differences between shorting and naked shorting. I could well imagine allowing fully hedged shorting and outlawing naked shorting. Especially considering the issue of fail to deliver, that’s just absurd with our technology.

[JumpCrisscross]

> could well imagine allowing fully hedged shorting and outlawing naked shorting

Many markets (e.g. Australia and Switzerland) do this. We have the comparative data to show it doesn’t do anything good while increasing volatility.