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]