You can put a SELL out on all your shares at the highest price the system your using will take. Let's say a dollar, fwiw. As long as that sell offer is out there, no once can 'borrow' them for a short.
Actually, they can have my ahares for a dollar per share!
I honestly don't know? Anyone please chime in if you know? I know they always put them in "Street Name" which means they can be easily borrowed by shorters etc... I think there may be some differences on the rules of margin accounts vs. cash accounts and what ones can be borrowed and what can't be. I think there might be some kind of "safe keeping" or something that isn't in street name where they can't be borrowed against. If you take delivery then surely you'll be screwed when it comes time to sell because that would be a PITA delivering the cert. etc... The reality is the MM's will sell and buy shares they don't own and keep doing this until the stock hits the Reg SHO list. So even if we all changed our accounts to try and fix the problem the MM's can just keep buying and selling shares they don't own until it hits the Reg SHO. That would make it hit the Reg SHO quicker if we all took our shares out of play. Very interesting point that we should try and find the answer to.
If you have a cash account then no one can borrow your shares. If you have a margin account then MM's can borrow your shares, however that only applies to certain brokers. Scottrade allows MM's to borrow the shares from people who use margin UNLESS the client specifies that the shares not be borrowed.