May 6, 2009
I strongly urge the commission to reinstate the uptick rule on a permanent basis. I also strongly support whatever rules the SEC has to put in place to eliminate naked short selling. It makes no sense to me as an individual small investor that large firms, or anyone for that matter, can sell something they don't own for the express purpose of pushing the price of a stock down so they can profit by it. The rules in place prior to their elimination seemed to curtail runs on stocks, and it seems OBVIOUS to me that speculators and raiders used the abscence of these rules as a means to drive down so many stocks in the past two years. They made millions on the backs of tremendous losses experienced in individual investor accounts and retirement accounts.
I suppose if it were up to me, I would eliminate short selling entirely. Anyone who feels a stock is overpriced can purchase put options, which if they are correct in their assumptions, can profit without impacting the stock itself, and certainly eliminating to a large degree impacting or manipulating the stock price itself.
Thank you for your consideration--please protect us ,the small investor.