Yes, you cant short them. But that doesnt mean youcant sell them. Which is precisely what index funds will be forced to do after the main European index, the Stoxx 50, announced that it will be removing battered SocGen, Intesa and Unicredit from its list of constituents (as well as that anachronism of a cellphone maker Nokia). Lets hope that European HFTs jump in to prop the bid. Oh wait, unlike our farce of a levitation machine, Europe does not have HFT, which is why following every overnightsession it is our vacuum tubes patriotic duty to buy everything up into theclose with a millisecond holding pattern, only to dump it to other algos, and ultimately retail and ETF hands. And since every loser has an equal and opposite winner, the companies that will replace the aforementioned sinking ships are Unilever, LVMH, National Grid and Air Liquide.