Holy F****** S***, You Idiots.

ASIC are idiots. Plain and simple.

If they think a ban on short selling will lower volatility and stop those 'nasty' hedge funds from profiteering from a bear market they're wrong. It's like they set their fiscal policy from whatever David Koch is saying on Sunrise.

Let's say you run a conservative little portfolio and you're long a few RIO.AX calls and you want to hedge your position by shorting some stock. You'd be doing the low risk, conservative thing, but now that those geniuses at ASIC have banned short selling, they prevent you from hedging your position, thereby increasing your risk, potentially forcing you to exit your position or even worse to sustain massive preventable loses.

How does ASIC decide what price level in the market is low enough that they can ban short selling? How do they know what represents fair values? They don't. What if the market is overpriced? (which it is)

If you run a super fund and you're getting smashed on your long market position and you want to buy a few index puts, are ASIC going to ban that too?

Seriously, the petty jealousy from the grubby little sneaks at ASIC has gone way too far and they have massively overstepped the mark. Their stupid over reaction caused a massive bounce in the market today (up more than 4%) and clearly didn't lower volatility.

We used to have a relatively free market Krudd and Co. The only other place they banned all forms of shorting was in Russia.
Next thing we'll be standing in line for soup and Brain surgeons will be paid the same as Ditch Diggers.

Why doesn't ASIC ban long only trading because a nasty hedge fund might buy up all the stock, artificially forcing it higher? That's just not fair, profiting from a rising market. They've got to start thinking.

Pack up, Go Home

It's all over, if you haven't shorted MQG.AX it's not too late, it's going to <$10. BNB.AX to zero. BCSCA.AX to -$2.

OPEC 1: World 0, Kevin Rudd -1

The oil price has been in steady decline for a number of weeks now, and this is not due to Kevin Rudd 'Applying the Blowtorch' to OPEC over high oil prices, this is because of a decline in the marginal demand for oil (and the recent powering up of the USD). People like Kevin Rudd have no influence over the price of oil (surprising, i know) despite implementing some sort of overly complicated, expense bureaucratic nonsense website.
Anyhow, OPEC got sick of the declining price, so what do they do? They do what any rationale cartel would do, they reduced the production of oil to drive up the price. The International Herald Tribute has a good article about it here.
Despite all the bleating, domestic politicians have less influence on Global Markets than they'd like to think. Why don't the ever get called up on their blatant misrepresentations of the facts, or their chronic over-statement of their usefulness.

What becomes of the broken Tollroad? BCSCA.AX

Brisconnections (BCSCA.AX) was a scam and is a scam and while the CEO and Maccas (MQG.AX) are desperately trying to tell you that it's fine and that it's a good deal, the market are voting with their feet and getting the hell out of this train (or should it be car) wreak before they have to throw away another $2 of their hard earned. This thing could well go to zero, and if it were possible, it should be trading for a negative value because once you own the partially paid share you are obligated to pay the extra $2. There is no reason to purchase equity in this transaction. Debt holders should be nervous, equity holders should be hitting the sell button. Funny how when you rob the 7-11 of $200 they throw you in jail, but when you rob the public of hundreds of millions of dollars via a terrible deal and shonky prospectus you get away with it.