May 14, 2009
As your job is to protect investors, not hedge funds, I implore you to reinstate the full original uptick rule, not a watered-down version, and to add the circuit breaker that will stop short selling for the session after a 10% drop as well. The SEC has been asleep at the wheel, allowing rampant abuse by short sellers, by removing a rule in place since the 1930s based on fallible studies of its usefulness that were conducted during a bull market.
On top of that, the SEC's blatant refusal to provide any teeth to the Regulation SHO naked short selling rule is inexcusable. Simply listing companies that are being attacked by naked shorts and doing nothing about it while the companies linger on the list for months at a time is akin to doing nothing. Put some penalties behind your rules
You have also allowed these ultra-short (and ultra-bull) ETFs to flourish, causing such volatility in the market that individual investors are afraid to buy in.
In sum, I again ask the SEC to do its job. Stop catering to shorts. To suggest that the original uptick rule is too complicated to reinstate only two years after it was removed is a joke. Start protecting individual investors in this country, like you should be doing, or we will get Congress to do it for you. Thank you.