229. More Mickey Mouse Tactics

Seems like people cannot leave well enough alone. Immediately they jump on a symptom for a problem and want to change it to something that worked decades ago but will no longer work. In this case its the SEC and its proposed short selling restrictions summarized here. With modern trading systems capable of zillions (figuratively, but approaching literal) of trades per second, does it matter if you wait a hundredth of a second for an uptick before you drop it again? Hmmm. Now borrowing billions of dollars through short trading by a super wealthy fund or individual WOULD bother me. Wouldn't this be market manipulation? Maybe the SEC should just GUARANTEE investigation of trades involving huge amounts of borrowed money -- make it a standing threat to do so. Maybe that will prevent the already-in-control hedge funds and others from driving the market down to gain a better buy-in point.