May 5, 2009
This is being written to ad my voice to the call for reinstating the uptick rule. As a 17 year business and financial editor of The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and a long time Business Week correspondent, I have watched several promising young companies wiped out by short raids. This is particularly egregious where it destroys the entrepreneurial spirit that has been responsible for the birth of many of the companies that make up our national product. When a company falls in price below the level of a recognized exchange and the short raids grow virulent, it is dangerously vulnerable to the practice of naked short selling. Madam Chairman, it is my hope and recommendation you 1-restore the uptick rule, which operated so successfully for so many years (why the Republican ex-congressman removed the rule is self evident) and 2-That you find means and ways to enforce the rules against naked short selling with substantial penalties to discourage those who would participate..
Sincerely. Gerry Pratt