I thought the instos. were often the lenders of the stock...

I thought the instos. were often the lenders of the stock without the investors knowledge. It's the instos who make the commission then, and the investors have no idea that some stock or other has been hammered, adversely affecting their own overall position in say a particular managed fund. So, they are the unwilling contributors to their own financial disadvantage. Seems wrong to me.

Now I may not have a handle on all this - don't know.

I guess such short trading is 'naked' in the sense that the shares are just taken for granted as being readily available if/when needed. So naked shorts are a practice in Australia as well as USA. USA action only selective, temporary and won't hold, will it?

Interesting website. Thanks for that, Lapdog.