February 20, 2010
It is essential that the "Uptick Rule" that was instituted in the 30's and stopped in the past few year, be reinstated NOW.
The average equity investor has no chance whatever (and there are millions of them)but to stand by and watch the hedge funds and investment firms 'take down' a stock with the intentional purpose of driving it down to almost nothing - and reap huge profits. There's no investment judgement used - simply a group of funds ganging up on a stock and relentlessly shorting it all the way down. In late 2008, many good companies were almost wiped out due simply to the lack of an uptick rule and this can't happen again as the damage isn't just to those publicly-traded companies - but the millions of shareholders of the stocks themselves (either individually through stock holdings or through their 401(k)or mutual fund holdings.
Please restore sanity to the markets and restore the "Uptick Rule" NOW.