What if they disabled trading, the stock slowly lost value, and people who were long the stock couldn't exit their position?
Someone's gonna complain and ask "why didn't they just disallow buying but allow selling".
Someone's gonna complain and ask "why didn't they just disallow buying but allow selling".
They picked the least painful option for themselves. Three options existed:
- Halt all trading - Halt buying - Halt selling
Everyone is pissed no matter what. The first is perhaps the most fair. The last helps the big institutions in this circumstance, the second retail traders.