I applaud the SEC's courageous move to ban short selling. Isn't that brilliant? I wonder why they didn't think of that during the Great Depression.
However, I feel that this valiant effort does not go far enough.
All selling of stocks should be banned. Once you buy a stock, you have to hold it forever.
Sure, this might make the market a little less liquid. But once stock prices can only go up, we'll all be rich!
Or maybe we should just try something simpler: pass a law making it illegal for stock prices to go down.
Just to clarify, i am talking about naked shorting (common in the US), below from The Big Picture (Barry Ritholtz). You can still take a negative position in most papers using derivatives.The temporary ban is on short selling to help the markets heal somewhat (damage from aggressive short selling esp. naked short selling financials). Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBigPicture/~3/PS4hr_YMAeA/short-selling-b.html
"Earlier today, we looked at an October 18, 1930, NYT editorial on on Short Selling. As we now see via Google News, bad ideas are contagious:
• Germany restricts short selling of financials • Netherlands bans short-selling • Taiwan limits short-selling • Australian Regulator Extends Ban to 'Covered' Short Selling • Dutch ban 'naked' short selling for 3 months • Irish Stock Exchange moves to block short-selling • Dubai condemns short-selling of shares
And in related news: • Short-selling set to debut in Egypt as the West moves to curb it • CBOE Head Denounces SEC's Emergency Short-Selling Ban • Swedish not considering shorting ban