yep.
but then, if you're not offering a house to rent, then that would be like writing a naked put.
there's nothing illegal about writing a naked put, so why would it be illegal to write a "naked" rental advert....?
lets investigate further.
you want to rent a place cheap as chips. but the rent is "too damn high" ("the rent is too damn high" - sing it with me).
so you wish to acquire a house at a lower rent, you flood the market with naked rental adverts to show the listing agent that "hey, there's stacks of place to rent, i want yours at $50pw less". agent obliges.
you then buy back your own naked adverts and the price reverts to normal. no-one has lost any money at the end of the transaction, except as a brokered deal between yourself and the lessor which is defined as "market forces".
not really any different to the share market, silver market, oil futures.
could go the other way, too.
you want to rent your house but there are too many adverts.
you ring all the agents, offer them $50pw more than advertised if they remove the listing now and send you the paperwork.
they remove listing, you hold paperwork for 5 days (1 to print, one to send, 1 to receive and 2 for it to get "lost in the mail") - meanwhile, you've removed all the listings and made $50pw on your rental because of the lack of stock. it's all to do with "market forces", see.
you decline all rentals verbally agreed to and you've just secured a better price.
other than timeframes (5 sec versus 5 days), this is different - how? - to the stockmarket....
hmm thanks for that, you've given me an idea