Rule of 72 -

Thanks for your insights.  I have never had the adeptness to be a trader but I can appreciate the desire of those that have this talent to take advantage of a stock going up and down.

 My concerns were not with the concept of selling short but with what appears (IMO) to be the deliberate driving down of the SP, through systematic selling, in order to pick up shares that are "stopped out" with stop loss orders or otherwise sold by fearful investors.   To me that is like placing a bet and then stacking the deck.

I know that the market is ruthlessly efficient and one could agrue that  players have the right to do whatever to takes to profit and the ones that lose out  got what they deserved.  I was just attempting  to give the people that are fearful something to think about before they give in to their fear.  Just as you chose analyze the numbers and decide to go short or long, I was asking everyone to review the information presented to us by MEO before they "place their bet" ( and, as you know, selling is as much of a bet as buying).

Selling half of your position is the  classic move for all wise investors.  I usually do that very thing.  Perhaps I'm being greedy (along with fear-the downfall of investors everywhere) but I just couldn't bring myself to sell at a SP that I thought was still far too low.  I may regret that decision but that choice was based on my expectations for MEO.

Panamax