"Selling legitimately has nothing to do with shorting stocks." - JW

JW, shorting stocks is also selling legitimately. It's the same. You may not like it and you may not agree with it but shorting is a legitmate market activity and it is exactly the same as selling. People who take short positions take the same risks as those who take long positions. I would venture to say shorting is inherently more dangerous because if the trade goes against you, you can be forced via margin call to cover your position at any price, whereas when you are long you're never forced to sell at a loss. Additionally, shorting can be beneficial to a stock, for instance when shorters are caught on the wrong side of a positive news release and are short-squeezed, causing the shareprice to explode upward as the shorts scramble to cover their positions.

For the record, my margin account doesn't allow me to short anything under 3 dollars, so shorting St. Elias has never been an option. But for those who do have he ability to short penny stocks, it isn't rocket science: in junior exploration bad drill results equal shorting opportunities. Right now there are traders waiting on the newswires to turn a profit on good and bad news releases alike. That's just the market.