Short-selling is a procedure used by hedge funds to profit from an expected fall in the price of a company’s shares.
I mean c’mon, people. We had to endure pretty brain-dead short selling definitions before but this is beyond the pale.
The FSA banned the practice following the bankruptcy of the US bank Lehman Brothers because it was seen as a possible cause of falling share prices among banks when these were viewed as undermining the UK’s financial system. But the continued fall of banking shares – prompting the Government’s bailout in October – has led many to view the ban as unnecessary and ineffective.
Took them long enough.
FSA plans to repeal ban on financial short-selling [The Independent]
Banning short selling is ignorant. Bringing back the uptick rule is not.
there also needs to be a downtick rule for purchasers, so HF’s can’t just run stocks up to the moon. When are we going to get this straight?!
the uptick rule is stupid. those with the resources (meaning everybody but retail investors) can and will easily circumvent it.
Lets just go full Pakistani: No downtick period.