http://www.falklands-oil.com/

http://www.rockhopperexploration.co.uk

http://www.argosresources.com/




Rockhopper was established in 2004 with a strategy to invest in and undertake an offshore oil exploration programme in the North Falkland Basin. It was floated on AIM in August 2005. Rockhopper was the first company to make a commercial oil discovery in the Falklands. Today Rockhopper is the largest acreage holder in the North Falkland Basin, with interests in the Greater Mediterranean region.

of course you care if the company goes bust (unless you're short!), but do you care what the company does to make its pennies? ..... i might allow you certain ethical exclusions though i can't think offhand what those might be

Not that Proselenes will be able to read this because I'm supposedly squelched, but that last post is garbage.

Short sellers don't destroy companies. Companies that fail invariably go under because their business model is fundamentally flawed and/or because their directors are incompetent. If the model is sound, the company will survive.

Maybe Proselenes should target his fellow shareholders who are quite happy to lend stock if he's that bothered about short sellers. They don't seem to care too much about their holdings and, without them, there would be no short interest.

Exactly. (Last para hits the nail on the head).

Pros - You really need to get a grip, people are allowed to take profits number one and number two if in your opinion the value of shares in a company are over valued then you are a mug to buy more, so surely that is the most sensible thing to do, sell em. It's not rocket science :O)

The Hang Seng index has no shorting, its gets on fine. The Chinese stock markets have no shorting, they get on fine. Many other markets shorting is not allowed - they work fine.

Shorting is a sick practice that sums up the western world, the want to "make money and profit from bad news and bad luck and bad management" and do not care about companies, the jobs they support and the peoples lives who may suffer when a company goes bust and cannot raise cash as their share price has been shorted to oblivion by sick vulture like shorters.

Shorting is a sick practice by sick people in general - but its legitimate.

And of course if DES has stuck oil I hope lots of shorters lost lots of money yesterday and burnt hard - they deserve it ! ;) What goes around comes around in life - yin and yang and all that !!! ;)

Ive been invested several times in companies that have had their share price knocked by over 50% due to shorting. Usually of course these companies are small cap, but not always.
In one instance, one company I was invested in had a third of its shares being shorted.
It is also difficult to find out how much of a companies shares are being shorted at any one time. Even if you are signed up to receive such information, the figures are often inaccurate and out of date.

Defenders of shorting nearly always are shorters themselves, which to my mind gives the same credibility as banks defending their business models and bankers defending their bonuses. Well they would wouldn't they!
As to shorters themselves, I have no problem. they are playing the system. It is that system that is wrong.

I appreciate we all have our views, and this discussion could go on forever, but everything I have read about shorting, has strengthened my views which is.
Shorting distorts markets. It is as simple as that.

If you own a company that's in trouble and people pile in shorts...at a crucial stage...it will not help that company...perhaps for shorting : legislation ought to be brought in preventing that nothing more than 50% of the total amount of shares can be shorted...something along those lines and not all owned by the same person or group of investors.

Is the problem how you short [ naked shorting ] and bank's using other people's money and nominee account share's of client's

Yes it is. If they want to loan your shares out, there is little you can do. Those who believe that if you leave papers stating that your shares are not to be loaned, they won't be are living in cloud cuckoo land.
It may limit such lending minutely, but that is all.
As to naked shorting, that has to be totally wrong. And remember naked shorting is only for the big players, most PI's are out of the game.

Bullshare used to do a bit of that naked shorting when he had hair.

Am glad to see his using both hand's

Plenty of shorting talk though is not RKH stuff, but I will add my part then

re - Defenders of shorting nearly always are shorters themselves

ye, ye and ye

Do Shorters playing the system, organise by the ones on the top, naturally themself corrupt.?

Maybe after all shorting is another way of profiting when the share price is too high, had a spike and needs retracement as on most cases do.

I am not in favour of shorting but I undertand the practise of it.

But I would NOT allow the practise of " NAKED SHORTING"

(1) the sole purpose of buying/selling shares is to make money
(2) it follows that if shorting and/or derivatives or whatever are a legal means of so doing, then one's emotional view (dislike/distaste) of such instruments is totally irrelevant

if you want to be altruistic with your money, then give it to charity and buy your passport to heaven

Well said Cynic. If you are prone to having a nervous breakdown every time your beloved share goes down open a savings account.

From my "UPS" thread ...............

How to maximise your profits on your SHORT positions

1. Being Effective

To succeed in shorting there needs to be a catalyst. If everything's rosey, you'll get nowhere. You need a smokescreen... there's no smoke without fire. Choose a share or sector where there are known issues.

2. Identity

To have an effect, you don't want to be seen as having a negative history. Your current negative stance shouldn't look like your normal stance. If you already have an established profile on a message board, you can use that, although any attempt to push things beyond the sensible may wreck your profile, that may not bother you (it may help your credibility for enough time to achieve your aims ... you may even have been intentionally building up your profile for just this opportunity), but if it does it's easy to set up a new profile. This won't have any history, either postive or negative.

And, afterall, message boards get new posters all the time, so a newbie posting won't in itself raise suspicions. In fact, why stop at one?

3. Choice of name

If you're creating a new profile, everyone expects share rampers/derampers to have quite macho or dynamic names. To hide your true intentions try to think of a name that's cuddly, or ideally has a feminine aura. This will keep other poster's guards down. Also, when posting coming across as a nae newbie will help keep peoples guards down. If anyone questions why you've suddenly appeared and taken an interest in a share when you are so negative, see section 13.

4. Negative Image - Pushing via repetition

Once you've got your persona, the simplest thing to do is just state your opinion. Over and over and over again. One liners are more than enough. Just keep repeating... this company is going out of business. Again, and again, and again. Don't worry if others respond with reasons to the contrary. Don't engage. Just keep repeating. This puts doubt into other reader's minds about whether they should be risking their money.

5. Negative Image - Enhancing Third Parties

In section 1 you chose a sector with problems. This helps. There will be respected posters who will post about the problems, warning others of them. These posts will be genuinely meant, and conatin genuine reasoning and fact.

Recommend these posts. The more people that recommend them, the more people will read them. You will also achieve the effect of elevating those poster's egos, potentially encouraging them to post more. Again keep recommending them. Get a virtuous cycle going.

You can also add your one liner insusbtantial comments to their threads to increase the apparent negativity. (Section 4)

6. Negative Image - Incorrect Information

Message boards are full of incorrect information. Add your own. For example who would trust directors with no shares in their company? Whether true or not, keep repeatedly (section 4) stating that the directors mustn't have confidence if they don't own shares in their own company. Repetition is the key. Very few would bother to confirm these facts, and if anyone posts a correction, just ignore it. Keep repeating the message. Any corrections will soon fade by the wayside.

7. Negative Image - Rumours ... the shorters friend

The slighest whisper of bad news, make sure people know of it. You don't need to provide a reference for it to be effective. In fact, who knows who starts rumours? Just make up a story, and if anyone asks where you got the info, just say it was offline and be vague to prevent anyone checking. People will be unsure whether to believe you or not, but that doesn't matter, it will still put doubt into potential investors minds helping them hold off.

8. Negative Image - The Trend is your friend

Whenever the shareprice drops this is a godsend. Make the most of it. Increase your postings of one liners stating the company is going out of business. This will increase the fear in potential buyers causing them to hold off their purchases. Keep fueling the negative cycle.

9. Facts - Lies

Others will post facts trying to stipulate why things aren't as bad as is being made out. Circumstance change for companies, and you can captialise on this. How would anyone know what the directors knew in advance? Make the most of it... keep claiming the directors are liars. No-one can prove otherwise... you're basically saying that any 'facts' that anyone could use against you are fabricated... and they can't prove otherwise. This stops those with a positive stance getting that killer point across that kills your required bearish stance. This is your safety. If you take this stance, no-one will be able to rationally kill your stance.

10. History - Evoke the middle ages

Well almost. There are plenty of examples in history that are now seen as extremely bad. Just look at the soup queues in the US in the 1929/1930s depression! Since predicting the future is almost impossible, keep eluding to such periods in history. This will help increase the fear and doubt. All it needs is potential buyers to hold off their purchases... fear of the future is your amunition.

11. Lead By Example - Manage your herd

People like to see others doing the same to sort of validate their decisions. Pretend you have bought (or you may even have genuinely bought a rally to day trade!). Then post that you are selling. This then adds more weight to your rationale, irrespective of how weak that rationale may be. And remember, no-one can actually tell what your trades are, so you can make some up.

In fact, emphasise your losses so far. That way people are even less likely to accuse you of bravado, and therefore think you're on the level. If anyone tries to convince you otherwise, you know the drill... fear and doubt. Keep fueling their fear of the unknown... it's future losses that matter, not historic profits. If anyone tries to present facts to help you 'change your mind', refer to section 9.

12. Teamwork

With a bit of practice you'll straight away spot other like minded posters. Join in with them. Recommend their posts, add your own posts (section 4) agreeing with them. Build up a critical mass of people. With enough fear and doubt across posts, uncertainty and lack of individual strength of charactor regarding their investment decisions will help put off many potential buyers. If you play it right, no individual could be seen as trying to manipulate the market, but as a collective, your goal will be achieved.

13. Motiviation - Admit nothing

Don't let people know your motives. Remember section 3? Play on this by pretending your presence is out of concern for shareholders and their finances. You don't afterall like seeing others lose money do you? I said, do you?

Potentially you could pretend to be a buyer in waiting, but expecting much cheaper prices. This has the advantage in the psychology that no-one likes to think the next man has bought the same thing cheaper than they have. If they think another poster looks like they're going to get their shares cheaper than the current price, this will cause current potential buyers to hold off, because they will also want that better price, no matter how (un)likely that price is.

Again, the trend is your friend. Whenever the price drops, bring this one up again to stop the bottom fishers halting the slide. Why buy toady when your fellow poster is going to be buying the same thing cheaper tomorrow! What a Fool you'd be!

If the price turns, just remind everyone it's a sucker's rally. Again, eluding to the fact that their neighbours/fellow posters will again be buying cheaper in a few days time. Afterall, what a Fool you'd be to buy the peak of a bounce in a bear trend.

14. Facts - Be careful

Facts should be avoided at any cost. Never use a fact in your rationale. This is critical. A fact would allow a context to be put on your position. And that's bad. You want to always be able to make things out as being worse than they are. Facts would put a stop in that! If anyone else uses facts, or asks you to use facts, refer to section 9.

You could pretend to use 'facts' but make sure these are tangential to any point of substance. For example, when stating how bad the economy is going to be, don't use sensible facts like IMF predictions, etc. Instead use 'facts' like how long the queues to the bread kitchens were in the great depression. Even if those facts weren't asked for or relevant. Think like a politician.

15. Subtlety

A good card counter will ensure they don't play the perfect game. Likewise, selectively and strategically throw some decoys. Don't make your intentions too obvious by giving away too many clues. In fact, an occasional forray into the bulls camp will help give you a genuine appearance, and make it look like you're basing your opinion on real time facts

Sound's like someone on this thread , but he is ramping .

How to maximise your profits on your SHORT positions can just as well apply to long positions

16. Appearance

All short sellers look like Shrek and don't speak English.

Or is that Wayne Rooney I'm thinking of?

you did well to wade through all that; can't be bothered myself

CAZA 37.125p ( 36.75 / 37p )

On the way up slowly as the INDICATORS are turning and sells are finishing, the retracement could be at its end. Positive Level 2 on 3 v 1, and MMs are moving up prices for the last 30 minutes

re - Appearance

Did we see the GANG of "Judas" getting together

much eassier target when the bomb explodes.

---------------
Credit Suisse on board with just below 10M shares .........

ROCKHOPPER EXPLORATION PLC (The 'Company')
Holdings in Company

The Company announces that it has today received notification from Credit Suisse
Securities (Europe) Ltd that, as of 22 October 2010, it held 9,989,606 ordinary
shares of 1p each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares"), which currently represents
5.19 per cent. of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company.

The percentage holding described above is based on the current issued ordinary
share capital of the Company and does not take account of the shares anticipated
to be issued pursuant to the placing as announced on 19 October 2010.