pb> i'd like to join the anti short effort.......how is that done? maybe i'm already doing it and don't even know
DISCLAIMER: This is not investment advice. Consult your financial advisor. Eat your vegetables. etc.
... without getting into the details of what the exchange rules surrounding this are (it's in the post history if you need to dig around for it...)
1./
typically, traders who short shares 'borrow' them from their broker/dealer.
2./
the broker/dealer can lend them those shares out of your account* without consulting you (you don't need to provide consent).
3./
however, if your shares are up for sale, they cannot be lent out.
the less shares there are available to lend, the higher the likelihood that shorters will be forced to suffer the penalty of a buy-in event.
4./
so, to foil the shorts, post your shares for sale at some reasonable price that you would be willing to accept ... most brokers should agree to post an order for $10/share as legitimate.
5./
if you do this, be very diligent about monitoring (we know how fast PTK can move) and be prepared to re-buy them if your $10 order executes (if it's your intention to maintain a new long positon, post-sell).
for example, my own high-ask orders (perhaps think of them as the inverse of stink bids) are never good-til-cancel. they always have a good-until date (e.g. end of the month) that forces me to review and revise them periodically.
hope that helps.
best luck with your investments,
R.
* -- reminder, this is only necessary with cash or margin accounts, since according to the rules, registered account (RRSP, LIRA, TFSA, etc) holdings can't be ("aren't supposed to be") used to lend out shares. fwiw, we don't know that this doesn't happen (i.e., a case of "only if they get caught"?) but the penalties to the broker/dealer are pretty severe, and the easy-to-detect activity is very likely to be caught in audit. result? the chance of it actually happening is imo relatively low, all things considered. risk/reward to the broker/dealer probably isn't high enough to try getting away with breaking the rules.
