From: Joseph Barrett [JEBarrett_1@msn.com] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2003 11:28 AM To: Chairman SEC; Regulations SEC; Rules SEC; espitzer@oag.state.ny.us Cc: vice.president@whitehouse.gov; secretary@state.gov; president@whitehouse.gov; William Frist; Tom Daschle; John Warner; senator_allen@allen.senate.gov; Eric Cantor; Bobby Scott Subject: Fw: Securities Short Selling needs Regulation Hello Bill, I am, once again, forwarding an earlier email expressing my concerns on the effects of securities short selling on the stock market. I would like to draw you attention to the history of the securities for Motorola (MOT) for the past two years and especially for yesterday and today. The only recent news on MOT might be the SEC's meeting, yesterday, on possible regulation of the hedge funds. Yet, yesterday, MOT traded up on a volume of nearly 60,000,000 shares. WHY??? Also, with a short position of 91.1 million shares, who sold the 59,000,000 plus shares yesterday. Did the market makers increase the short position to 151,500,000 (91.1 million + 60.0 million)? I do not know, but since I own 30,000 shares of MOT, I would like to know what is going on. I think that a comprehensive review of the trading activities on MOT for the past two years might identify the significant problems with hedge funds, market makers, and securities short selling in today's stock market!!! Joe Barrett ----- Original Message ----- From: Joseph Barrett To: chairmanoffice@sec.gov ; rule-comments@sec.gov ; marketreg@sec.gov Cc: George Bush ; Dick Cheney ; senator@warner.senate.gov ; senator@allen.senate.gov ; Collin Powell Sent: Sunday, July 21, 2002 11:51 PM Subject: Securities Short Selling needs Regulation Hello Harvey, In these tough economic times, I am sure you are happy to hear from another unhappy investor! I, just, wanted to tell you that one problem area, that seems to be receiving no attention is that of the short sellers. I am positive that those greedy hedge fund managers and others are working together to collectively drive the stock market down and are making massive amounts of money while the longs are losing their shirts!!! Now, can I prove the above statement? No!!! Can you disprove the statement? No!!! The real reason that I am writing is to remind the SEC, that despite several requests by Congress for the SEC to develop a method of gathering the data necessary to determine the effects that securities short selling has on the market, no real progress has been made in this area. Providing a total short position for a security for one day of the month for each month does not provide the real time data necessary to determine the impact of short selling. "The 1967 Special Study recommended improvements in short sale data collection." "The 1976 Release noted the problems of insufficient data that the Special Study faced in 1963." The above two sentences are from an SEC document, Release No. 34-42037, on short selling. The primary problem identified by the 1967 Study and the 1976 Study was that there was not enough data to determine the real effects of short selling on the market. Unfortunately, the problem, still, exists today! I, personally, feel that the short sellers are a major cause of the current fall of the market, but the data to prove or disprove this theory is not available. So, in addition to confirming the integrity of the books of the large companies, a review of the impact of short selling on the current market should be made. In addition, the real time data collection system for securities transactions needs to be modified to collect the real time data on short sells. Joe Barrett Richmond, Va. 804-261-6973 A Concerned Investor