"I can't think of a greater deterrent than having to call a broker, sit on hold forever, just to make a trade."
Exactly why they do this. It is manipulation at it's finest. You see if NITE has shares shorted he calls his buddies at Snottrade and Amerislut and says "Heh fellas I gotta keep this PPS down cause I'm naked so can we restrict online buys?" Now what happens is since the brokers don't have the power to halt trading completely they excorsize their "Fraud Alert" online buy restrictions under the guise of protecting their clients.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
