Shorting Should be Banned

Now What for Apple Investors?

"The commission is committed to using every weapon in its arsenal to combat market manipulation that threatens investors and capital markets," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in a statement. "The emergency order temporarily banning short selling of financial stocks will restore equilibrium to markets."

The feds also think short sales aren't part of the problem!

Now What for Apple Investors?

UK Regulator Bars Short-selling on Financials- AP
Britain's financial regulator said Thursday it was temporarily banning the short-selling of shares in financial companies that are listed on the London Stock Exchange. Short-selling, in which investors sell borrowed shares in hopes of buying them back later at a lower price, has been blamed for sending bank share prices plummeting and exacerbating turmoil in financial markets. U.S. regulators tightened rules on the practice Wednesday.

Now What for Apple Investors?

"If I and everyone else was in an all out effort to sell AAPL stock the net effect would be to push the price up."

Really! You mean the short positions are eventually closed
You cannot escape the fact that net SELLING pushes the price DOWN, and by shorting the stock, you are SELLING.

I do not leave in a dream world; I am an investor, not a trader.

If you are convinced the stock should be going down either on its own merit or because the company's performance is being affected by economic factors, you should use Put Options, and not exacerbate an already bad situation by selling securities you do not own.

Now What for Apple Investors?

The problem is he and everyone else who follows his advice are borrowing the stock you and I own without our express permission and selling them, thereby driving the price down beyond where (based on fundamentals) it ought to be!

Now What for Apple Investors?

If the society is truly "free-market" then the troubled banks and mortgage underwriters should be allowed to fail; after all, they created the financial crisis.