May 9, 2009
The uptick rule should be reinstated and supported immediately. Although short selling does serve a useful market purpose, it can only do so from a level playing field, and by players following the rules.
By the same token, the most notorious practice of allowing Naked Short Selling must be stopped now. The SEC has turned a blind eye to this practice for too long, allowing wholesale attacks on stocks, companies, and the market by selling shares that they don't have. In any other field of endeavor, someone selling something they don't have would be a quick route to jail.
I am all for free markets, but only if all the rules are in place, and more importantly, enforced.