Can a trader succeed if he doesn't Short sell

[tomorton]

It may be odd but the tiny sample of people who have personally expressed to me that short selling is morally objectionable carried very much leftist political views. They formed a direct link between short selling (driving down the economic viability of a company, leading to bankruptcy) and redundancies for honest hard-working people. Not something I had seen as cause and effect.

Hard to take what they say as serious. Socialist thinking doesn't normally see the opposite activity, share acquisition and long-side financial speculation, as desirable and leading to increased economic strength and greater employment.

 

[jsc]

You can certainly operate select Options strategies without short selling. However, it would be utterly pointless as the first thing the market maker buying back your long position will do is take a short to cover himself.

Look, say you are 'long only' on a strike of £25 and the current stock price is just £25.50. Market maker offers you 45p to exit your long (call) Option with three days before expiry. You take it as its better than nothing - and the market maker is now long the £25 call with a short lifetime. To protect himself, he immediately shorts 100 shares at £25.50. This combination places him in a no-lose position with the potential for a windfall profit.

No short positions would mean there was no market. Hope that's clear.

 

[arigoldman]

Why limit yourself?

 

[tommog]

I don't mean to offend any of your beliefs but selling short is one of the most moral virtues in trade.

The market's ability to say "you are charging too much for this and you are taking advantage of the market and should be priced lower" is what makes the free markets the fairest means of pricing something.

Also, the ONLY people that have to make a bid in the market are short sellers, because the only way to realise a profit on a short position is buy the trade back. If a market went into free-fall and nobody was short you would have a total vacuum on the buy side until the long term buyers knew they were buying a company way below its true value.

Banning short selling only makes markets fall further and faster. It has been proven time and again. Left wing views fail every single time when put into practice.

 

[asimpleplan]

Casino gulag boom/bust capitalism. I don't choose the economic/financial environment I'm forced to live in. If I had a choice I'd advocate agrarianism, local markets, non mass immigration, a gold standard, and a clean planet - fat ****ing chance!

Let's face it, if you're on this forum you're small fry and what we do doesn't ultimately affect the direction of the markets; market rigging is another game for those who really run this system.

BTW, I'm new to trading and haven't made a trade yet but that's my philosophy.