September 11, 2008
The practice of naked short selling should be banned. There is no other intention by the person executing a naked short sell on a security other than to inflict harm on the security and company traded. This practice is counter to the underlying fundamentals of capitalism and financial investment management and should be prohibited for all securities, not the least of which the broker-dealers who very survival is paramount to the successful functioning of our market system. Witness the demise of BSC and the dramatic and precipitous decline in shares of LEH and it doesn't take a very astute individual to understand what is at play here.