August 20, 2010
I fully believe I have been harmed numerous times by abusive naked shorting practices conducted by market makers. I believe the practice has gone way beyond the ability to provide liquidity, but is frequently used to artificially create an oversupply of a security to drive prices down. Small companies and small investors are easy prey to this practice, especially the OTC and Pink markets. Naked shorting can cripple a start-up company's ability to raise capital and destroy a small investor's hope of being part of a strong success story. I believe investor confidence has been seriously impacted by naked shorting and other manipulative practices. I further believe that strong investor confidence and increased wall street transparency and integrity are vital to resolving the crisis we are now facing.