Short Selling in the age of COVID-19

Dear Readers,

Here at Shortdata.ca we have always been passionately against the market's ability to short sell the shares of small cap and start-up companies.

Its just not fair....

These companies already have an uphill battle toward success. They may have a good idea, and quality management who believe deeply in their new product, or new service, and work 24 hours a day, trying to make the world better in their own small small way. Often management and employees take lower salaries than they otherwise could receive, because they BELIEVE in what they are doing. However their long journey against a myriad of obstacles often makes their uphill climb insurmountable.

They must raise capital - usually by borrowing money from friends and family in the beginning. They need to work against a world of bureaucracy, red tape, and rules. Having to battle in a world dominated by big banks and 1% Billionaires, virtually everything is stacked against them.

And that is why, at this time, with the financial and market effects of the Covid-19 epidemic raging around us,

We call on the Government of Canada, IIROC, the Provincial Securities Commission's, and the TSX, TSXV, and CSE to COMPLETELY BAN ALL SHORT SELLING of companies with less than a $100 million market cap.

If someone wants to take a short position in the shares of TD Bank - fine. But if it is the shares of some young entrepreneur, trying to forge a new great Canadian company - in whatever industry that may be - then we say: HANDS OFF!! Go pick on someone else during this period of crises.

Now is not the time to allow evil profiteering off the backs of hard working entrepreneurs, and off the backs of people like you - people who believe in these companies - people who have invested their hard earned money into these companies - and who are are watching your portfolios evaporate daily. Just as we find it abhorrent when someone stockpiles hand sanitizer and later sells it at $30 per bottle, we likewise find the current situation of unbridled short selling distasteful, abhorrent, and disgusting.

We have over 60,000 people using this platform - and we need 5,000 signatures to send this petition to the government and to market regulators.

And so we desperately need to ask for your help:

PLEASE sign the following petition to STOP ALL SHORT SELLING. In this way, the market can again work toward having an even playing field.