May Short

Chart of the day, courtefy Yahoo. Tried to short NYX on Thursday. E*Trade Financial rejected my order. The message that always pops up informs me, "Your sell short order cannot be processed. Short sales in this security are not allowed, as we were unable to borrow the shares."

SEC, where are you? I own shares of NYX, which I paid cash for six weeks ago. I cannot even short those, and I'll be damned to sell and realize the loss. The shares I own represent only two percent of my portfolio, so I am not being hurt. The whole thing just smells, and makes me feel like the retail investor I truly am. I started trading with emotion, after I couldn't get my way. That emotion was a little hard to see through, and I canceled a perfectly good buy-limit order for AET @ $36. That would have already been a nice ten percent swing.

NYX just goes down a little each day. The move under the 50-day sma was not followed by any meaningful reversal. By June, this one will be in the forties, well under the 200-day moving average.