The presence of the ability for market participants to short sell ad infinitum (only dependent on their own capital they are willing and able to use to short) is a double edged sword. Just as you mention that their shorting pressure allows for "cheapies", the shorts could just as well increase their borrowing/shorting/selling pressure at any given time and strip away any and all bids in the market at once and the PPS would fall as they fill their own lower and lower bids with newly found shares in margin accounts to borrow and dump on those bids. The floor would fall out and the stock could trade down to $0.0001 if they really were adamant about it and wanted to use all the millions of dollars of margin they have as a weapon against longs. Be careful what you wish for.
In my opinion shorting, should be subject to the uptick rule. The natural price discovery process of shares of stock in the market should only be influenced by the supply and demand function of real buyers and sellers, not shorting/covering nuetral day traders who make it merely a game of who has the most capital engaged. I think if there are those who wish to make side bets on the directionality of the stock trading without actually owning real shares to sell or giving real cash for shares should be required to just go place their bets using options; I realize PK stocks do not have options but the NSS and ad infinitum legit shorting is killing this market. Look at the dwindling volumes, no retail volume left and the bots are all taking up the averages in classic pump and dump fashion so they can dump on the news of the election result. Its a sick market, it has an illness and needs to be cured. Shorting gone wild and run amock is the disease.
May the force be with you.
