May 5, 2009
As an individual investor, I have absolutely lost all confidence in the markets as the place they used to be to buy and hold a stock and be comfortable that a level playing field existed and that my efforts to save and invest would someday enable a retirement.
Naked short selling and failure to deliver those shorted shares has completely wrecked any semblance of control in the industry. Further, the fact that the SEC only SELECTIVELY enforces the rules, renders the agency a feckless, captured body who does not ensure a level plaiyng field for the majority of investors. Witness the selctive enforcement of the uptick rule and naked shorting only for the 17 major banks that were in trouble last fall. What about the hundreds of companies that have been on the Reg. Sho list for months, sometimes over a year??
Enforce the rules already on the books
Reinstate the uptick rule
Fine the perpetrators who fails to deliver shares treble damages as a minimum, they are being let off with mere slaps on the wrist. Let them see some prison time. Even children know that real consequences work.
Failure to enforce these simple measures will further erode confidence and there will be a move from the markets to the bank of 'Stearns and Foster'. Wall Street is broken and Washington is complicit. Fix them please.