July 15, 2008
To Whom it may concern:
As a brand new investor who has put in his first $15K and watched it whittle down 50% in part due to hard short selling, I urge you to simply enforce the rule of having to borrow that stock or be forced to buy in at the original price. With all these shenanigans, my FNM and FRE stock has been hammered by innuendo and bad press. I know that these companies are nowhere near collapse, yet my portfolio is screaming collapse.
On another note, since the Uptick rule was repealed, we all have seen a MASSIVE degradation of stocks in the markets again because of unfair shorting by the "big money" guys.
Your job as the SEC is to stand up for fairness and transparency in the markets, yet I see back-room deals and smear campaigns started on the heels of hedge funds that want to make easier money by cheating and naked shorting then having to wait for a stock to naturally rise due to strong fundamentals and earnings.
I urge you to enforce the laws as they stand on naked shorting on ALL stocks, not just these "select" financials that frankly deserve to have their hands slapped because of the froth they have created in the markets.
Thank you and good day.
Eric Newton