August 20, 2009
"selling only at a price above the current national best bid"
No no no no no
Bring back the ORIGINAL uptick rule that has served the markets for the last 8 decades Market makers have been manufacturing bids/asks to satisfy their clients. They can easily drop the high bid and allow shorting on the way down. This will lead to a MORE precipitous drop than we have already seen. Short sellers have been cheating the markets and failing to deliver shares. The only way to solve the issues are to:
1) Bring back the ORIGINAL uptick rule.
2) ENFORCE the REGSHO IMMEDIATELY. Force the market makers who allowed these trades to reverse them. Remove any market maker who fails to deliver shares for a period of 1 year from the stock in question. In addition, do not allow them to short ANY stocks for a period of 3 months.
3) Crack down on false reporting by the media. It creates a false sense of the market. Media bias is feeding on fear and driving irrational moves in the markets. CNBC is particularly bad in this case. Likely in bed with hedge funds.
4) Pair all short sales with the broker. One short per one share. If the share does not exist at the brokerage, they need to have it in-house before the short is allowed. No reshorting of shares.
5) No special exceptions. Regular trades complete in 3 days. There is no reason market makers or institutions should take longer.
Now stop screwing around and get the rule back in place. It should have never been removed in the first place.