February 20, 2010
The original uptick rule should be reinstated with no 10% per day walk arounds provided. Has anyone at the SEC taken time to analyze short sales during the various meltdowns? When two to three times or more than the total number or shares authorized or outstanding - are sold in a matter of hours or days - and the amounts involved surpass the liquidity - there is no market. It simply becomes a slaughter and even large institutions can be crushed - and have been. Almost any two large institutions - and in some cases only one - have been able to destroy competitors - insurors - and particularly small investors and smaller institutions. The original uptick rule does not totally stop these abuses but it helps - and if the automated trading rule were either enforced at specific levels as was originally intended - or reinstated by SEC if it has been dropped - would significantly stabilize the market.
Sincerely,
Chuck Wall
Just an ordinary investor with no billions to control or lose