June 2, 2009
As a relatively new (but reasonably, I believe, informed) investor who decided to enter the US equities market on my own (rather than relying on the dismal performance of my 401K, as so many Americans can attest) in early 2009, I am writing to express strong support for the letter recently forwarded to the Commission by Eric Oberg, Jim Cramer et al (hereinafter "the Oberg-Cramer letter")regarding the absolute and utter necessity to restore sanity to American equities markets by reinstating the "uptick rule," as it is commonly called.
Because of the opportunities the market has presented this year simultaneously to pursue goals of financial security AND help support US companies in their recovery from troubled economic times by purchasing their equity issues, it is truly an unprecedented time-- to find the proverbial silver lining in the cloud-- for small investors like me all across our nation to contribute value to the market by investing our hard-earned dollars. Trust in the fairness of these opportunities to those of us who actually work for a living at building the future, and not purposely trying to tear it down for quick, rank profit at our fellow Americans' expense, as is the case with many short-selling large hedge funds who have decimated bedrock American financial institutions in recent years, is critical, as I am sure the Commission understands.
While Commissioners may disagree on nebulous technicalities or theories about laissez faire markets or what-have-you that have been presented by anti-rule proponents, perception, as goes the standard mantra in the broadcasting business in which I worked for many years, is reality. All the studies, papers, high R-squares from fancy OLS regression analyses, etc. will be of little value (except to entrenched mass-money interests that wish to continue dominating, and where profitable destroying, the market) in restoring public confidence that equities markets are both a great AND a completely honest place for individual investors to pursue their dreams of economic betterment. The Commission previously listened to and heeded the argument that the uptick rule was unfair, unnecessarily restrictive to trading interests and somehow just not in line with good ole American capitalism. I ask you to look where buying into that argument has gotten us. Failure to bring back a strong, sensible uptick rule and failure to enforce same vigorously and honestly is to walk a path that excludes perhaps hundreds of thousands of Americans with perhaps multi-millions of collective dollars saved from the shreds of their former retirement accounts that are ready to invest in making the American economic engine once again the world's most enviable. Sensible regulation is not anathema to the American experience-- in fact, had I more space to press the argument, I would suggest that it is far more in LINE with the pragmatic American experience than more extreme dogmatic theories which insist on purity for their own sake. At the very least, if any Commissioners opposing reinstatement of the uptick rule still believe in the absolute correctness of their ways after the wholesale destruction of wealth that malevolent short-sellers have wreaked, I believe this is an important issue to raise at their re-confirmation hearings at the end of their current terms, or one to press with new appointees as they are named by the President. And American investors MUST watch with care and interest in this regard, because with the original abolition of the uptick rule, we have sadly learned what can happen when government hands quasi-anarchic environments to special interests that would profit from them... in other words, when government refuses to accept its responsibility to GOVERN.
I add my voice in full support of the Oberg-Cramer letter and additional authors of public comments during the Commission's review period who have agreed with the almost 6,000 Americans who signed that petition. Please bring back the uptick rule and demonstrate that the Commission is dedicated to allowing average Americans to take that chance once again-- as our forebears had-- on owning a real, tangible, productive piece of the United States of America through fair honest private equities ownership.