August 18, 2009
As an individual investor who has suffered from the lack of protection from naked short sellers, front runners, black pools,etc., I am begging you and your government agency to restore the protection of the uptick rule.
This rule was quite effective for years in protecting individual investors, especially those invested in small cap stocks with a relatively small stock float from predation by individuals and hedge funds with the capital to squash a small cap company and depress its stock price for profit. One always hopes that the markets and stocks one invests in based upon fundamental research are protected from what I consider to be nothing more than market manipulation and raiding.
I am not opposed to short selling. I have taken such positions myself on occasion based upon fundamentals of a company or investment sector. I am opposed to taking no up front capital risk in shorting a stock and being able to hit every bid to drive a stock price down based upon no fundamentals but only on the ability to manipulate price. Please at least restore the protection we investors used to have with the uptick rule.
This action alone would go a long way toward restoring confidence to our stock markets and would offer investors in small cap stocks( where our new companies and new economic drivers begin) a measure of protection and price stability when they invest their hard earned capital in a company.