@ Katoom,Thats exactly the point. The 'chose' the wrong side....

@ Katoom,

Thats exactly the point. The 'chose' the wrong side. Being able to play both sides and having to 'jump on the bandwagon' means there will be more violent market swings. Being able to short also increases the incentive to profit from negative news and manipulate the news. Moreover, 'investors' are investing to find value in a company and shorting profits by destroying value - its counter productive.

That said I have shorted on multiple occasions and I think that shorting is not as destructive as HFT stealing of quarters of cents from investors. HFT is just another middleman who carves out some of the profit from the seller and adds some cost to the buyer.