A stock market was invented not only to help the ones with big money but also the little ones and moms and Pops. The beauty of capitalism is you can make money as long as you are willing to do the work. However, capitalism cannot work to its full potential if there are no regulations and transparency where everyone can adhere to.
When you have a market, which is controlled by few big players (whom often have an agreement amongst themselves when it comes to shorting stocks) and can short millions of shares in a day without any transparency is totally unfair, unethical and does not represent the spirit of a FAIR GO or level playing field.
Just think about it, they can short millions of shares in one go and they don’t need to disclose who’s doing it, and to add insult to injury they don’t even have a dead line when they have to cover their shorts. Not to mention, your own stock can be used to short against you without your knowledge. YES, YOUR BROKER CAN DO IT IN RETRUN FOR SOME FEES AND YOU GET NOTHING – how crazy is that.
If I was retired and have the time, I’d definitely enjoy challenging the ethic of the whole process on front of an Australian court and maybe sue for good money too.
China opened its market to hedge funds and after few months they started shorting stocks which resulted in their market tanking by %6 (lots of retailers which they represent almost %80 lost lots of money). They immediately banned shorting after that. Their market still open to hedge funds but they follow strict rules.
Not against shorting. Just think it will be for the benefit of Australia’s economy (the little ones and moms and Pops spend their money in the country) if there is transparency around shorting. It’s not hard to limit shorting according to a company’s outstanding shares and have a time frame when shorters must cover their shorts. We don't need to know the time.
A FAIR GO AND LEVEL PLAYING FIELD ASIC
