What do you want for Christmas?

I’m only two days away from taking my Christmas leave, so like any desk worker, I’m not doing anything productive so I thought I’d respond to this question asking about my Christmas list (PSE edition). Let’s go!

> Shorting:  I know the PSE said it’s done all it can, but that’s just not enough. It’s been a year. We need to walk before we can run, but we can't even take the first step.

> Options:  It feels crazy to even ask for options trading if we still can’t even short stocks, but they don’t call it a “prioritized list of practical needs” list, they call it a Christmas wish list. 

> More ETFs:  I don’t understand the financial or practical challenges that keep ETFs from proliferating on the PSE. I’m thankful for FMETF, but I’m really confused why the world stopped there. It feels like a new series of interesting ETFs could also help drive volume and hit the non-PSEi stocks that rarely get any love.

> More transparency:  Companies should not be able to present market-moving information to analysts during the trading day. Whatever is said to analysts should be live-streamed to the investing public, and a full transcript of what was said (with slides) should be posted on the EDGE server within 10 minutes of the meeting’s conclusion. 

> Kill the zombies:  I’m tired of seeing companies get suspended and then just not die after years of living in a limbo state between life and death. Involuntarily delist the companies that don’t comply. Everybody knows we have the fewest listed companies in the region, so failing to kick offenders off the exchange just encourages crappy behavior. Hell, even Phoenix [PNX suspended] should have been delisted a month ago according to the rules!

> Hold IPOs accountable:  It feels counter-productive to require a company to go through the whole song and dance of cleaning up its financial statements and making a prospectus to conduct an IPO if we’re just going to let them do whatever they want with the proceeds anyway. I say that a company should be required to comply with its use of proceeds section for a three-year period and that any alterations to the section should require a two-thirds vote of the public float to succeed.

MB bottom-line: I’m a simple guy, I just want investing to be more fun and fair. Give me more options, enforce the rules, and get out of the way. That said, I know how things work, so I’m not going to hold my breath. Besides, Santa brought me a short-selling toy last year, but he forgot to also bring the batteries, so it’s just spent the entire year sitting useless in the corner gathering dust. My fingers are crossed, though! Assuming the market considers me “bad” this year, I would happily accept some coal in my stocking (in the form of airdropped SCC shares).

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