At 3 dollars I wouldnt think we are that susceptible to the practice. Don't forget shorters make money on drop in share price. And their highest possible return is 3 dollars to share assuming that when the shares are acquired the price drops to 0.

This is true of conventional short selling. I'm talking about unconventional (naked short sellers) who overwhelm illiquid markets in small and micro cap stocks with massive supply, then cover at the lower artifical price. You only need a few points spread to make money this way, if you repeat the process over time, and over many stocks. I'd encourage people to listen to Financial Sense, and to Jim Sinclair on this topic. Also, pull up some charts of junior miners and note the huge decline in these shares during a period of rising metals prices. Some of these stocks are selling for less than break-up value. That's normal during commodity bear markets, but this is anything but a commodity bear right now.

Shorting is found on bigger markets primarily where the potential from sudden gains (that is price declines) are much more fierce.

A great example of shorting is what happened on Monday with Gold

No comment on gold, but conventional shorting in liquid markets is a different animal than what I'm talking about. Shorting with the intent of driving down price in thin markets is different from identifying specific weaknesses in larger issues, as for instance the banks and brokers. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with most junior miners today, and yet they get repeatedly hammered down. I'd welcome some other explanation of the phenomena, which typically sees selling far in excess of normal daily volume on no news at all. Until I see a better explanation, I'll go with JP's theory on this.

ebear