RE:In the USA, they would be facing fines and jail for thisAye. It was illegal also until 2007 when they decided to allow it in order to allow stock prices not be so inflated. And look what happened. It created the 2008 stock crisis. Then they blamed it on the housing market. The 1% get richer. And everyone else can live in a box for all they care. So they added the " circuit breaker " which was proven with cgc in November is garbage and doesn't stop a stock from a free fall at all. As it is. You are only allowed to stock a stock that hasn't lost more then 5% the previous day. So if WEED drops 6% today. Then there not allowed to short it tommorrow. Whoppie. The panic from a 6% loss lasts days. So it doesn't matter at all and does nothing. The next day it drops 4% and there game again to short the following. It disgusts me that it's even allowed. Any stock on the planet regardless of how well priced it is. Cannot handle the downward pressure when you put 2 or 3 times the volume towards the bids. None. Not the best most secure stock on the planet.
DaveMtl wrote: The SEC adopted Rule 10a-1in 1937, also known as
the uptick rule, which stated market participants could legally sell short shares of stock only if it occurred on a price uptick from the previous sale. Short sales on down ticks (with some narrow exceptions) were forbidden. This rule prevented short selling at successively lower prices, a strategy intended to artificially drive the stock price down. The uptick rule allowed unrestricted short selling when the market was moving up, increasing liquidity and acting as a check on upside price swings.