The Motley Fool Discussion Boards

Previous Page

Investing/Strategies / Shorting Stocks


Subject:  Re: unvoting Date:  4/4/1999  10:51 PM
Author:  kuhlfool Number:  5501 of 44593

When you short a stock, your broker "borrows" shares for you to sell. Can your broker only borrow from other shareholders at the same brokerage? Would this also explain why some brokerages don't let you short certain companies?

This would not resolve the voting issue since the shares held in the brokers name are fixed, if all are shorted and all are voted, that would still be twice as many votes as are held by the brokerage.

I agree that this is getting pretty hypothetical since even a high short ratio is usually low compared to total shares outstanding. Additionally, the voting rate is also low that the brokerage could probably swing it. Except that the votes are sent by individuals to a proxy service, not to the brokerage. hmm?


