May 5, 2009
Sec Chairman,
You MUST regulate the ETF's that are underlying these issues. All this debate and any subsequent move will be moot without regulation of the ETF market. Make certain that the ETF's are traded legally (including Naked shorting) and you will go a long way to restoring balance to the market.
The MM's who are Cooking this market are the culprits in the very deeds you wish to curtail. Goldman Sachs is the most egregious, and it is right in front of our face, day in day out. No real confidence can be instilled in the Market as long as Accounting Fraud runs rampant.
If you target the outright FRAUD, and properly prosecute and jail those who continue to perpetrate this Fraud, you will gain market confidence. So, while it is good to make certain the rules are being followed please make certain the most important rules are being enforced.
The uptick rule might make naive investors feel better, but you MUST reign in the Huge amount of abuse in the ETF market (including illegal trading and illegal short selling) so that the underlying issues can trade fairly -- AND, you MUST enforce the very basic fundamental Law that dictates a Company must disclose all material information and numbers that are free from Fraudulent manipulation.
Real Confidence returns when the Fraud ends. No sooner. It's really that simple. Not to mention that the shorts will have little ammunition when the market is no longer crooked and Mafia orientated
S.Max