April 8, 2009
I lost 10s of thousands of dollars (>20% of my annual income) as a result of short selling on US stocks that have not included sufficient controls. Pundits are joking on how the SEC is not proposing regulations that will make any difference. Hedge funds and others will continue to abuse the system.
The Uptick Rule re-instatement is not enough. There is an imbalance between the common investor and the professionals and short selling is a major factor. As long as there is a means to abuse, professionals will take advantage which will include awareness of the psychology of the common long investor, how they react to tageted or surgical short selling.
The lack of regulation of short selling was criminal. A lot of innocent people were hurt and it has contributed to the financial and market problems today.
Tim