May 4, 2009
I wrote a note to the SEC a couple of months ago and have written my Congressman and Senators prior to this and all I can say is WHAT IS TAKING YOU SO LONG. Everyone can see the damage that the short sellers have inflicted upon the economy and our country, but apparently the SEC feels that we need to "study this further". Perhaps people who work for the SEC will receive a government pension and don't need to worry about their financial futures, but the average citizen has to live on their 401K investments for their retirement years. When the original test was done to remove the uptick rule, it was done during a bull market period??? Does this prove anything? Why was the original uptick rule put in place? Where did the term "bear raid" originate if there was not collusion and manipulation in the markets? A raid involves a group of people working together in concert for a common goal. In this case the goal is to drive the price of stocks down for personal profit.
We need the uptick rule back with "teeth" that will stop the hedge funds from playing a mathematical game with their computer programs to get around the new rule. We also need to make sure that no one can sell a stock unless they "own" it and have possesion of the securities. We also need to investigate the the new ETF's that allow people to short whole sectors at 2 or 3 times margin. Do the ETF's own the securities that they are selling? Who are we protecting here? The large hedge fund managers that make huge dollars by talking down our economy for their own benefit while the little guy is getting crushed?
If a foreign country did this much damage to our country, we would declare war on that country. How can we tolerate this from our own citizens?
Please bring some common sense back into the markets.
Our country depends on it.
Thank you.