Misfit - you have worked so hard at providing lots of great work on research, I am happy to now repay a bit.

First, you do not need to sell your shares and trigger a capital gain to change brokers. All that is required is what is called an "in kind" transfer to your new broker. They will help you make that arrangement. One caveate though; when you open you new account transfer only part of your holdings (say half) at first. If you transfer everything at once and you want to make a trade, you could find yourself in limbo for a few days while the positions are in transit

Next, do some research on brokerages- I am with Q Trade financial using a discount broker arangement - trades cost $10. but there are a few enc fees that can add a few bucks to the cost.

There are also direct access brokers out there that advertize instant order execution at even lower fees.

On the subject of placing sell orders with large numbers on them, I suspect taht if nothing else, it will make the shorters run for frequent changes of underwear if nothing else.

I know for sure that large price sell orders on RRSP will not reduce the actiual number of shares available to shorters, because RRSP shares are held by a trustee and cannot be loaned out.

I am pretty sure of what I say - I am a Certified Financial planner by profession.

Lastly, Shortty refers to my nickname, not any proclivity to engage in shorting stocks.

Shorrty. Cheers