Do we really need Stock Markets ?

Ups and downs in the stock markets have prompted many of us to ask this question ourselves. Markets shedding 12% a day and recovering the same the very next day. Intraday sessions are more volatile. Why is it happening ?

The answer I have is that they are not Stock Markets any more. Whether they were really Stock Markets is not my subject. I don't research into the past. I can definitely say, now these are not Stock Markets. These are gambling dens. No one is transacting on stocks. Only speculation rules in the market.

If we need Stock Markets, we have to make them so. Short trades are to be stopped. Short traders are not investors, they are gamblers. No investor will take a share of a company in the morning and sell it in the evening. Only gamblers do so. No investor will sell a share that he doesn't have in the morning and buy it in the evening. Only gamblers do so. We don't need these kind of elements in the Stock Market. If we don't clean them up, Stock Markets cease to exist, only gambling dens remain.

Stock Markets are essential for the economy to provide liquidity in the hard assets of a company. They provide a platform for a wider community participation in the growth of the economy.
Tougher regulations are needed in the Stock Market. How can we believe the stock price of a company to grow 50% per annum when it is making a modest growth of 5% and the economy at large is growing only at 9% ? Can we call the one who buys the stock of the company at 50% premium at the launch of its IPO an investor ?

So we need our governments act positively to convert the existing gambling dens to real Stock Markets where we can trade stocks.

Does anyone care ?