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Can’t short sell LNKD (Linked In) stock on E-Trade. What a scam!

Ever since the Linked In IPO skyrocketed to asinine levels, I have been wanting to bet $10,000 on its catastrophic decline. I opened up an E-Trade account to do just that. Sure, they might have 100 million members, but those members are mostly inactive (myself included). We are just too lazy to login and delete our accounts. Let's face it - Linked In sucks and it's not helping people land jobs.

Unfortunately, when I tried to short sell the stock on eTrade, this is the message I received:

Your sell short order cannot be processed. Short sales in this security are not allowed, as we were unable to borrow the shares.

Hmmmm....that sounds fishy. What do you mean you can't borrow the shares? That doesn't even make sense.

I emailed E-Trade customer service to get an answer. Here was their reply:

To sell a security short, E*TRADE must have long shares on hand that can be borrowed for the sale. The inventory of shares available will change frequently throughout the day. This means that just because someone else might have been able to short a security previously, it does not guarantee shares will be available in the future.

If you are unable to sell a security short on the website then please call customer service at 1-800-387-2331 to speak with a broker. The representative can find out how many shares can be lent out. Since the order would not be placed online, the normal $45.00 broker assist fee will not be charged.

I guarantee E-Trade has long shares on hand. But I did not understand what they meant by "long shares on hand that can be borrowed for the sale." Before a short sell is made with other stocks, do they ask other users if they can borrow their shares? Surely not! It doesn't even make sense.

I called the 800 number to see if a broker could short sell 100 shares of LNKD. They could not. When I pressed them for an answer why, they said that no shares were available. What does that even mean? If I can BUY THE STOCK, I SHOULD BE ABLE TO SELL THE STOCK.

As usual, the rich and powerful are stealing from the small time trader. Here are the victims:

1. Linked in Buyers - Because the small time trader cannot short sell LNKD, it's obviously overpriced. For every person who buys Linked In now, they are going to be in for a rude awakening when these shares become shortable by the general public. The shares will PLUMMET. Now, do you think those Linked In buyers were warned about that before making their investment? Of course not!

2. Wannabe Short Sellers - Because we can't sell short, we are missing an opportunity to place our bet while the stock is high. In fact, I tried to sell this stock short all week while it was in the 90s. Today it lost 8.44% and closed at 86.37. With a $10,000 investment, I should have made $837 in a single day!

Of course, I'm sure the big boys on Wall Street have no trouble shorting this TURD of a stock. What a crock.

Verizon Wireless Prepaid Charges You For RECEIVING Text Messages

I was looking around for a phone for my wife. Her entire family lives in China, so she just wants something cheap that she can use in case of emergencies here. Anyway, I almost bought her a Verizon prepaid wireless plan, but then I found out that they charge money every time a text message is RECEIVED. Are you kidding me? Only in the United States!

If you've ever bought a phone in another country, you may have discovered that the mobile phone companies don't even charge for receiving a PHONE CALL, let alone a text message. They only charge the person who actually makes the phone call or sends the message.

So, if you own a prepaid Verizon wireless phone, someone can just send text messages to you all day to jack up your bill. I asked customer services about that, and they said that the only way to prevent this is to turn off text messaging COMPLETELY. Kinda defeats the purpose of having a phone, doesn't it?

Verizon is a dirty,crooked company.