IMO it's not worth the hassle to request certificates for traders.
While legit brokers shouldn't allow shorting without available shares, and our requesting certificates will cut down the number of shares available for shorting, here are the negatives to doing it:
1. Illegal shorting is occurring and it's rampant, and that's probably more the problem than the legal shorting, in most all cases where there IS a problem. Taking our shares doesn't reduce illegal shorting, if we're dealing with legit brokers as most all of us must be doing.
2. While the shares are in process of being sent to us I don't think we can sell.
3. It costs us money to get them.
4. We have to be available on a dime to deliver them if we want to sell them. We could lose more than a day, for example, even if we have them delivered overnight. The brokers might not be willing to sell for us without having those certificates in their hands.
Because of items 3 and 5 I listed our liquidity is curtailed.
If we intend to hold long-term and not trade, this doesn't matter and it's fine to hold our certificates in hand. But if we want to be free to impulsively decide to sell, we are limiting ourselves by requesting the certificates.
I got shot off my horse. So what? I'm up again. Mark Knopfler
