May 8, 2009
I am responding to the proposed changes the SEC is considering in the short selling rules. You the SEC must level the playing field for the individual investor. Right now the market is fixed and the individual investor even with advise from so called professionals cannot compete with computerized trading, short selling, CDO's hedge funds and speculators. Look at the price of fuel last year. The price of fuel was driven by speculators which never owned a refinery or an oil well. They drove the price of fuel to the point were it was a major contributing factor in the recession. The same with short selling. The hedge funds and speculator with billions of dollars to invest drove the price of some of the banks and investment banking companies down to the point where some went bankrupt and some had to have additional tarp money to survive. If you the SEC cannot level the playing field for the average small investor than the government will be taking care of many of its retiree due to the loss of their retirement savings, taken by the hedge funds and the speculators. You clearly were asleep at the switch and I implore you to consider how any changes will level the playing field and it is time to give an advantage back to the individual investor.
Wayne Rey
Waterloo, Illinois