July 25, 2008
I have never shorted a stock and feel that it is un-American to do so.
I am a careful investor who takes a considerable amount of due diligence before I decide to make an investment.
I am a small investor compared to many of the institutional investors and always take the approach to buy a stock and hope for appreciation. When I purchase stocks I never do so on margin and am required to pay for the purchase of my shares at the time of the transaction.
I am upset that large financial instituitions have the ability to short stocks and never take delivery of the shares and in doing so can effectively reduce the share valuation by simply making a bogus transaction. I am sure that this has been done regularly and wish this to cease immediately. If hedge funds and investment banks wish to profit at the expense of the small time investor then they should put their money on the table. This practice is just another greedy tactic that is used from hedge funds which have huge capital resources.
Too often then not it is the smaller investor who is hurt the most and the company and the emploees of the shares shorted. This practice has been going on for too long and it is high time that something be done about and ample protection be given to all investors and not just banks.