Replies to post #17053 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Zeev Hed]

Why should there be an additional tax on short term trading, it is already taxed as regular income? Short term trading is what provides liquidity in the markets, for that they should get a bonus, not a penalty. Shport term trading does not causes price fluctuations, most good short term traders lean against the wind, namely sell when everyone is buying with abandon, and buy when everyone is selling in despair.

Zeev

[sylvester80]

Listen people. Stocks go down because primarely LONGS SELL. Short interest is nothing compared to shares outstanding and long interest. Stocks go down because LONGS DO SELL. Or are you of the opinion that longs don't sell? lol

[jdaasoc]

You mention shorting on upticks

If I was particular negative on a stock with some justification, I might write small number of naked call deep in the money taking in several dollars in cash in lieu of straight shorting a stock.
I see no particular prohibition of writing as many number of naked short calls as your heart desires but I think first several dozen contracts would be at or very close to market bid but the more you wrote the lower the bid price for the option would become if MM had to go out and hedge.

[gravity]

". One problem I have with the major shorts is rumor spreading and unscrupulous "news" purveyors. This can apply to longs but most recently the shorts have held the spotlight."

How many osama bin captured\dead rallys have we seen this year?

[brightness]

The original purpose of the market is price discovery and liquidity. Short term trading fits both purpose remarkably well; after all, market makers themselves are short term traders.

As for the issue of Social Security, once again, people who derive their income solely from stock trading are not even covered under Social Security benefits (under current tax code, capital gain is not "earned income" regardless how much work is done in analysing stocks) why should they be forced to pay into a self-help system that doesn't help them at all?