May 5, 2009
Uptick rules are not restrictive enough to prevent a determined short seller or group of short sellers from destroying the value of an investor's holdings. Because prices and volumes of stop loss limit orders are visible, powerfull market centers and others can break prices down through triggers and take stock away from investors who are only trying to protect themselves from fundamental turns. Investors cannot protect themselves against short sellers, they simply become the means by which short sellers who have no intrinsic interest in a company as an investment, guarantee their own success.
WE NEED MORE RIGHTS.
I want the RIGHT to prohibit my broker from making my shares available to short sellers. I have a margin account and I have to sign away my right to hold my shares away from being loaned to be shorted against my own position. I want the RIGHT to instruct my broker to segregate the shares in my account as not available to loan. If I borrow on margin because I don't have the cash available at that time for a purchase, and my broker loans MY SHARES out against my position, then he is making it more difficult for me to hold shares as interest costs build. If my broker loans MY shares, it is a clear conflict of interest between me and my broker. He is destroying the value of my account by loaning my shares to be sold against my position. If I truly own the shares, then I should have the RIGHT to keep my shares out of the hands of short sellers no matter what kind of account I have, cash type or margin type. A simple check box to disallow borrowing is all it should take to indicate my preference.