Wow!! Sure is a lengthy one. I'll try to expand on some points.

1st, all short sales are supposed to be declared as such. Declared short sales can only be made on a price uptick from the previous trade. This is to prevent the continual smashing of a stock on a particularly bad day. This rule has been around for a very long time & in theory would be helpful on a day like 9/11. This is not to say the rules are always followed. The SEC recently did a survey & found some incredibly large # of shs. that had not been delivered after 30 days which indicates a major problem in the US with "naked" or undeclared shorts. I wonder how large the problem is in Canada?

I think I basically agree with your ideas on crosses but I will say a few words. 87%of the time an a/c will initiate by calling a favoured broker & saying I wish to sell 250m ARU at $8. Because the avg. daily volume is between 400m & 500m you can't execute on the TSE floor without knocking ARU down $1. (A stock that trades 4 mill per day could be easily done on the floor in minutes) So all the instit. salesmen at that broker call all their a/c's. In a matter of 5 minutes everyone including other brokers know of the block for sale. All the small buyers back away & small sellers become more aggressive. At some point a buyer for the 250m is found & a cross completed. Then a rebound begins & buyers become more aggressive & sellers back off. If the initial order was a buy all this would be reversed.

I'll leave the $8. collar subject for another day!!

Regards

Joltin