July 16, 2008
Dear Chairman,
Concerning naked short selling, it is my understanding that it is illegal, but that enforcement of the law has been extremely lax. I have no proof, but am quite convinced that naked short selling has been rampant, and that it has greatly exasperated public market problems in the last few years. Please enforce the law. I am not opposed to shortselling in general, just naked shortselling.
Secondly, as an active trader and careful observer of daily market action, I am convinced that the uptick rule for shortselling was also useful. Again, I have no proof, but I am quite convinced that I have watched shortsellers simply overwhelm the market in order to produce fear and violation of "support levels" in stocks.
I am a Republican, but a very unhappy one as the SEC appears to have been quite lax in law enforcement against naked short selling.
Thank you for your service to this wonderful country,
Phillip E. Baskett