May 5, 2009
Dear Ms Schapiro,
Regarding the reinstatement of the uptick rule. Please do it. As an individual investor I have no ability to compete on an equal basis with the rows and rows of traders that sit in these bank/investment house/hedge fund trading floors. It's bad enough they have two or three computers per desk and I'm left trading through Fidelity (which is pretty good.)
However, I don't have a chance when these guys decide to sell off and attack a particular stock. I don't have a chance to protect my life savings in my IRA when they decide to short a stock or naked short it. And there is widespread collusion (of course as usual unproven), but when millions of shares go short from multiple organizations there is collusion. At least if you stop the practice they can't get together and gang up on my stocks.
Please put the uptick rule back in as close to the way it existed as possible, whether it is by decimals or nickles, doesn't matter. I was listening to a number of the people at your public session today. I do not at all like what the banks are saying. There are just too many of them invested for their convenience and the effect is that I will lose. They just have an overwhelmingly unfair advantage.
In the past when I invested in a stock I did my due dilligence and picked carefully those stock I thought were promissing. It was just my and the company I invested in. Not any more. Today I am competing against all of these financial wizzards who run prices up and down and occasionally drive me out of a stock.
Also, please put a halt to the practice of naked shorting - period. I again hear a lot reasons certain people need exceptions. Everyone wants it there way. If you don't have the stock in your account you can't short it. This isn't hard. Please fix these things.
Thank you for serving our country.
Sincerely,
Thomas R. Connolly