Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. (ATTBF)

[zidarn]

What you're describing sounds to me like Options. Options run in parallel to the shares and is like betting on whether you think the SP will go up or down...

I have nothing against the people who are shorting, but I too agree that shorting with "borrowed" shares should be banned from the markets or in some way limited in volume. The way I see the difference is options are betting on a game you're watching, shorting is betting on the game you're watching, while also tossing a couple marbles out on to the field for your team to trip on.

In some situations (like the last couple weeks) selling begets more selling. By selling something you don't own you are essentially inputting "false" shares into the trading market which may or may not influence other traders. Selling 1000 shares does nothing but could you imagine what shorting 100k shares in the middle of a low volume day can do? We've had days where our percentage of short trades out of total trades was nearly 40%! That's 40% of all shares traded being bet against the SP. That's not betting that's game fixing D: