The long and the short of it: Crisis puts shorting in the spotlight

Calls for a ban growing louder amid Covid-19 impact

We are living through extraordinary times. Stockmarkets are reaching their biggest single-day gains during one week, and sinking to all-time lows the next.

Given the immense volatility sweeping across markets - which has triggered the US stockmarket's automated circuit breaker three times in less than one month - some countries, including Italy, Spain and Belgium, have been banning short selling in order to shield some of their ailing listed companies. The same ban was implemented by US regulators during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, due to concerns that essentially betting on a stock losing value was exacerbating market sell-offs. This time round US regulators have not - at least, at time of writing (25 March) - put the brakes on sh...