May 5, 2009
I am an individual investor who is trying to save for retirement and currently has a modest investment portfolio of stocks and mutual funds. Total value is about $750,000. I read the Wall Street Journal and various books on investing, but am not a broker or day-trader. I invest for the long-term.
To protect investors like me, who represent the foundation of our investment system, I strongly urge the SEC to re-impose the original uptick rule for short selling of shares. The lack of a stringent uptick rule puts individuals investors like me at risk. Lack of an uptick rule only benefits the traders who seek to make money by forcing the prices of certain stocks down, and it has cost the taxpayer billions of dollars in the case of bailouts for several banks and financial institutions.
Likewise, I urge the SEC to strongly enforce the ban against naked short selling. I don't believe the SEC is doing a good job on this.
Please also eliminate all double- and triple-short ETF funds. This too has no redeeming value for the integrity of the equity markets.
Finally, please be more proactive in protecting the itegrity of our stock market. Without integrity, the equity market has no value. My biggest worry is that the SEC is still relying on expert opinions, based on complex econometric models, about the value, or lack of negative impact, from not having the uptick rule and double- or even triple-short ETFs. We have heard this before and already know that such models do not fully capture the full range of possible scenarios that can affect markets. So, please, work in the interst of individual shareholders and focus on ensuring market integrity and capital formation.
I am submitting this statement to my Congressional members from Nebraska: Fortenberry and Terry in the House, and Ben Nelson and Mike Johanns in the Senate. Hopefully they will enact legislation for the above if the SEC fails to act