"I mean it is NOT possible that shares that are mine can be borrowed at a nominal fee to someone else is it? That would be illegal surely."
When you bank YOUR money, you can't tell the bank how you want your money lent.
Someone posted an article on HC some months back, written by a stockbroker working in London in the late 70s. Went something like this: Realestate was on the nose and everyone was shorting (naked and otherwise) all the RE Trusts into oblivion. Most Trusts went belly up. But the directors of one company kept buying these ever cheaper shares, till one day they noticed the held more than 100% of the shares on issue. At this stage they demanded their shares back and thus came out with a handsome profit. However, apparently, according to the author, this company too went bankrupt shortly after.
The big boys make the rules, as they see fit. We play within these rules KNOWING this. They make the big money and we hopefully survive on the scraps. KNOW THIS!!
Our advantage is mobility. We only trade relatively few shares. This enables us to get in and out quickly, they need to trade in larger quantities or at least far more often to make ends meet. This allows us, with luck, to sometimes make bigger % profits to survive.
