From: Leonard Cascia [arrowleads@mindspring.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2003 10:11 PM
To: rule-comments@sec.gov
Subject: S7-23-03: Comment letter.

                                          Leonard Cascia
                                         64-22 Madison St
                                        Ridgewood NY 11385

November 26, 2003

From: Leonard Cascia

Subject: Proposed Rule: Short Sales. File No. S7-23-03.

Securities and Exchange Commission
17 CFR PARTS 240 and 242
[Release No. 34-48709; File No. S7-23-03] 
RIN 3235-AJ00
Web address; http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/34-48709.htm

Att: Securities and Exchange Commission.  Comment letter.

I am neither a trader nor a market maker but rather a purchaser of stocks 
in the open market.

I am in favor of your proposed rule on short selling but feel it comes short 
on the fact that the proposed rule still comes short on naked short selling. 
No pun intended. By allowing brokers and traders to simply have or request a 
signed request for any security that they do not currently have in there 
possession will only lead to a massive paper trail of promissory notes. The 
rule does not do anything for the company stock and more importantly it's 
shareholders but rather only benefits the trader or brokerage firms.

I just can't see mail room clerks pushing around large carts filled with stock 
certificates around Wall Street from one brokerage firm to the other like they 
did in the 1920's and 1930's. The only way I see it is to put a stop to all 
naked shout selling. Naked short selling puts a stock at an unfair disadvantage 
to it's current outstanding number of shares and can easily deflate it's value. 
There is no way an individual stock investor can know at a glance how many shares 
have traded naked or whole. All we see is the total number of shares traded that 
day. Naked short selling will continue and so will the abuse of it.

Thank you

Leonard Cascia