Trader Mike

The SEC just put out a press release detailing the temporary ban on short selling of a huge list of financial stocks. I took the liberty of copying & pasting the text of the PDF that lists all the stocks that can’t be shorted from now until October 2, 2008. The list , which is below, may be easier to scan & search than the PDF (use CTRL-F on your browser to find a specific ticker or company name)

It’s interesting that none of the ETFs are on the list. Can one still short XLF? How about buying the inverse financial ETF (SKF)? Ah, you’ve gotta love a hastily put together list. Hopefully this is as far as they’ll go and they won’t try to ban short selling across the entire market.

I just got wind of the latest absurdity being kicked around by the SEC — they’re allegedly thinking of banning short-selling all togetherr:

Amid the spiraling market crisis and mounting pressure from lawmakers, the Securities and Exchange Commission is considering taking the dramatic step of temporarily banning the routine practice of betting against company stocks.

{ SNIP }

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke held a closed-door meeting Thursday night with members of Congress. Cox told the lawmakers the SEC may put in a temporary emergency ban on all short-selling — not just the aggressive forms it already has targeted, according to a person familiar with the matter. The ban might apply to stocks of …