May 4, 2009
I believe that the primary purpose of the stock market is for investing and ownership of stocks, not gambling on the ups and downs of these stocks. The proposed rules do not go far enough. The rules should be aimed at making the markets a place for investors, not gamblers and speculators. If a stock is worth investing in, then it should be worth holding for a minimum of thirty days.
The uptick rule should be fully reinstalled without any requirement for a percentage drop to trigger this rule. You should have to own the stock in order to sell it. Also, short ETF's that have double and triple impacts should be controlled or eliminated.
The commodities were also out of control on the upside last year, driving the price of oil and grains out of site. Controls are needed to prevent this from happening again.
These two factors--uncontrolled short selling and wild speculation in the commodities market did a lot of damage to the stock market and our economy in 2008 and early 2009.