May 4, 2009
Dear SEC
I am writing to urge to you to restore a much stronger version of the uptick short selling rule than what is now being considered. I know dozens of individual investors like myself who are losing confidence in the way our major markets are functioing today because thee deck is unfairly stacked in favor of the big hedge funds who have unlimited means at their disposal for driving a stock price down to very unreasonable levels. The end result is that a publicly traded company's market cap is far too often destroyed on a massive level while huge losses are unfairly sustained by the average investor.
Also, we firmly believe that abusive naked short selling has been going on far too long and needs to be much more tightly regulated as well. We believe that brokerage houses should allow all naked short sellers no more than 2 business days before those shares sold short are located and replaced. We also believe that these tighter naked short selling regulations should apply to all exchanges, including the Bulletin Board and Pink Sheet exchanges, where fledgling and undercapitalized new companies are most vulnerable to this type of abuse. Also, strict penalties should be levied upon all those broker/dealers who do not conform to the rules, otherwise this type of abuse will never end.
Thank you for considering my suggestions!
Robert Italia