May 13, 2009
To whom it may concern,
It is a shame that the uninformed public seems to think that short selling led to turmoil in the financial markets over the past year. As a small active trader I was astonished at the lack of efficiency in the market for financial stocks that were not allowed to be shorted during the fall of 2008. I strongly encourage the SEC to examine the wild gyrations and dramatically lower prices that occurred in the stocks that were on the restricted short list. If the commission feels it necessary to placate the media and pander to people with no knowledge of market dynamics then I recommend instituting a circuit breaker that would prohibit shorting a stock for the remainder of the day when it is down by a certain amount.