Short selling is fine as far as backed with real coins.
It's fine if there is a level playing field. What I'm suggesting is there is not one.
Secondly I'm sure you can imagine the potential problems if title is not granted when coins are short sold..
Btw apart BTCe which exchanges openly allow short selling?
I don't know. Do you think they will tell you if they are letting people sell your coins?
I'm suggesting it is happening because there is no rational for bots to keep pressuring prices down unless they are short. The way these bots are operating (at times) is the same MO as bots that are designed to see how low they can get the price of this or that financial instrument.
You just have watch the price action.
If you offer to sell they immediately jump in front. I you buy the price up a little, they immediately (and I mean immediately) tick the price down lower. They fill the screen with tiny sell orders. They continually sell small amounts as low as they can.
There is only one strategy this type of algorithm fits. Its the way computer trading systems are programmed to act
when they are short. Not at any other time.
Ok.... lets break this down to simple practicality. If you are putting up your BTC for sale for USD 500. Then immediately a "bot" comes in and places a BTC for 499. . You then willingly place your next BTC for 498 and so on till its like 496 or something, am I right? So this is when I come in and go "hey look... cheap BTC... let me buy some" and purchase all the 5 or 6 BTC I see selling for less than 500. I don't see where your conspiracy theory of "short selling" and the "invisible hands of deep pockets" driving prices down happening. The market exists because a majority can buy at the prices they see and sell at will for the prices they want. A trade gets executed when two of them makes eye contact and shakes hands. It does not matter if one of them is a bot as long as the other get at the price indicated on screen.
And just so you know, I one up a seller by selling for a few satoshis all the time... hell, I must be imitating a bot then!! You think there is some unseen nod between traders that they won't sell above / below a certain price or something?