May 8, 2009
The uptick rule should most certainly be re-instated. Obviously the hedge fund managers and other professional traders who created much of this crisis by their irresponsible shorting of stocks (the same behavior that contributed to the stock market crash in 1929) want to continue their irresponsible ways. The drunkard or drug addict becomes rebellious and can even become violent when reasonable limitations are imposed on him (or her). This is a matter of protecting the hard working public from this new era of robber baron. These financial vandals do not loot and pillage and burn villages as in ages past. Instead they loot and pillage in the financial markets causing deliberate disruption and manipulating stock prices, causing stock prices to capitulate under the unchecked short selling pressure. They have not just burned the village as the earlier robber barons to loot and pillage. They have nearly burned up our financial system. Take the matches out of the hands of these irresponsible greedy children. Do not let them short stocks without restriction. It is more prudent to simply reinstate the old uptick rule (also imposing it on the options traders) than to try to create new rules that will be debated and argued for ages with no action. There is data available showing the dramatoc increase in volatilaty before and after the uptick rule was imposed on options. I saw the charts created by one of The Street.com's columnists. The benefit of the uptick rule in supressing volatility is obvious when looking at that data. The greedy and irresponsible have thrown the markets into such turmoil that the private investors, as IAM, have been driven out for the rapacious greed of the irresponsible few. They will still be able to short stocks, but with the adult supervision imposed by the uptick rule. Please, please, reinstate the uptick rule so that law and order can once again rule on Wall Street instead of unchecked greed.