The rule where the stock had to be on the uptick for a number of days (5?) to be shorted? I had no idea it had been dropped, but I'd been out of the market for about 5 years.
The last I heard, naked shorting was something that was often accused, especially on stocks struggling to get/keep listed, always denied, but the likley cause of demise of many companies (and excuse for lousy product/management of others).
I'd always thought it was illegal, as there can end up being more shares shorted than the float.
It's not?
The up tick rule had been changed June 14th 2007.
As for naked shorts, and it is still illegal, but there is alot of naked shorting going on, and it is not perused by the SEC.
Some speculate that the sudden drops in various commodities is due to illegal shorts of hedge funds trying to clean up their balance sheets for various nefarious reasons having to do with trying to hide the disastrous credit derivatives.