October 9, 2008
Dear sir,
I am just a normal investor who works hard, takes care of my family, and saves and invests when I can.
Over the years, I have followed a few stocks carefully and watched how hedge funds manipulate the stock price by selling short and then spreading unfair and dishonest rumors on the stock. The affect of short selling is to drive the price of the stocks down when it is not warranted by news or outlook for the stock.
1 - The SEC should enact a PERMANENT ban on ALL short selling in US markets
2- The SEC should enact a PERMANENT ban on sale of all stock market put options
3 - The SEC should PERMANENTLY halt trading in all short and ultrashort stock market ETFs
4 - The SEC should institute these changes immediately without any further warning for maximum impact
5 - The SEC should go to the US government and request mandatory reporting of short selling activity in foreign markets and application of economic sanctions upon countries where significant abuses continue
6 - (NEW) The SEC should ban mark-to-market accounting for instruments for which there is no orderly market
It is high time to declare war on -- and financially ruin -- those -- who through abusive short selling in all its nefarious guises -- are ruining the US economy for their own private gain.
Please take action immediately to stop this kind of stock market manipulation.
John Carmony