http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080721/short_selling_fannie_freddie.html?.v=1"The SEC order, in effect for 30 days, prohibits so-called "naked" short selling of shares of Fannie, Freddie and 17 other large financial companies. The companies' shares generally have gained since the agency's announcement of the order.
Short sellers make a bet that a stock's price will fall so that they can profit from it. They borrow shares of the stock and sell them. If the price drops, they buy cheaper actual shares to cover the borrowed ones, pocketing the difference.
"Naked" short selling occurs when sellers don't even borrow the shares before selling them, and then look to cover positions immediately after the sale. The SEC order requires short sellers to actually borrow shares before selling them.
Edward Yardeni, president and chief investment strategist of Yardeni Research in Great Neck, N.Y., and others wondered why the SEC action didn't apply to all financial stocks, "and for that matter, why not all publicly traded stocks?"
Short selling is legal and long considered part of the swashbuckling culture of Wall Street, but it can provoke controversy in a jittery bear market like that of recent weeks."
Looks like the government knows theres a problem. sing the petition and maybe they make it permanent
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