Cinema

You said:

"Could they be auto shorting my NOT holding and selling me back my own shares?"

Comments/questions:

Are they allowed to short your holding without your instruction/consent?

They can certainly borrow the shares from from other accounts (short that account, even their own accounts) and sell you the shares, but they would need to cover the shorting later when the shares are delivered to you. Or, they are given some leeway (and a lot of it) to trade within their own house, and they don't have to report their internal trades (your trade) to the market.

Just wondering if they are given an upper hand in this "manipulation"? So they can "paint", "stop painting" or even "don't show the painting" of the tapes whenever they like?

goldhunter (no expert in trading rules)