RE: Spam increase

[Drsolly <drsollyp () drsolly com>]

On Thu, 8 Jun 2006, Brian Azzopardi wrote:

> When shorting a stock you are not trying to sell the stock but _buying_
> it when it has already crashed - and buying something worthless is
> easier than selling it.
 

The key thing you've forgotten, is that to short a stock, you have to find
someone willing to lend you some of that stock so that you can sell it at
the higher price (which you won't be able to do because it's an illiquid
stock), then buy back at the lower price and return the stock you
borrowed.

The scammers aren't going to lend you stock. They don't want their 
worthless paper back, they want cash.

Your broker isn't going to lend you stock, it's an illiquid stock that he 
doesn't have any of.

You might be able to borrow some stock from other people being scammed, 
but you're unlikely to be able to locate them, and since they have no idea 
who you are and have no reason to trust you, they won't lend you their 
stock against your promise that you'll give it back. They want to have the 
stock they bought, so that they can sell it at a (they hope) huge profit 
at the right moment.

And if you're able to borrow stock from the Tooth Fairy, you *still* won't
be able to sell it, because there's no market for the stock. So, all
you'll be able to do, is give back the same stock you borrowed, and you're
out athe number of dollars that you paid for the privilege of doing the
transaction (people don't do thngs for free).

If you're thinking of using puts or calls, then I'm telling you that if 
there's no liquidity in the stock, there won't be a put or call market in 
options or futures.

People who think they can scam the scammers are just food for the
scammers. They think they can make money out of the scam somehow, and
that's how they get sucked in.

Consider also the advance-fee frauds. People get sucked in, because they
think they can do something shady but profitable with someone who,
upfront, admits that they're committing a fraud.

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