June 15, 2009
I urge the SEC to REINSTATE THE UPTICK RULE. It worked well for 70 years to provide orderly short selling based on a company's fundamental outlook. Its misguided removal during a period of market stability only provided another tool to the greedy Wall St. hedge funds and speculators enabling them to drive stock prices up and down regardless of the underlying fundamentals. During the past year, the stock market has set extraordinarily high daily records for volatility. As long as the rules (no uptick, naked short selling, credit default swaps, etc.) enable the speculators to roil the markets, we retirees, our children and grandchildren are fast learning that putting savings into stocks is not suitable for the individual investor.
John Altorfer