I saw this headline last night. I’m in the minority of people who knows what this means, but let me say, “this is ridiculous in a free market!” U.S. stock futures leap after SEC short-sale ban

U.S. stock futures pointed Friday to a second straight rally after, on the heels of a planned move to buy up bad assets from financials, the Securities and Exchange Commission imposed a temporary ban on short sales of 799 financial institutions.

“The emergency order temporarily banning short selling of financial stocks will restore equilibrium to markets. This action, which would not be necessary in a well-functioning market, is temporary in nature and part of the comprehensive set of steps being taken by the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and the Congress.”

Let me try to put this in perspective. With short selling, I can make a bet that a stock will go down. If the stock goes down, I can make money. This is different than normal selling, because I would first have to own a stock. To short sell, I don’t have to own the stock. By temporarily banning short sales, you’re taking away people’s ability to make bets, or profit, in the event that a stock or market goes down. This is why you’re seeing the market rocket up yesterday and today.

If that’s not manipulation and interference, I don’t know what is.

UPDATE: Here’s a good Q&A I found in regards to short sellers.

Q: Do you think that short-sellers are to blame for the mess we are in?

A: No, I do not. While I think there were some hedge funds pressing their shorts and working in coordinated attack patterns to destroy some financials (very much like they do when bulls are running on the long side which, by the way, no one ever questions), the banks and brokers are ultimately to blame for becoming easy targets. If you run a solid business, make big profits, and enrich your shareholders, short-sellers have absolutely no power to take you down. That’s the way it is suppose to work in a fair market even though it clearly seems that the government thinks we are all entitled for stocks to go up no matter what.