May 31, 2009
Bring Back the Uptick Rule
More and more people in the United States no longer have defined pensions and rely on their small 401k s for extra income in addition to their Social Security checks. The small investor during the past 2 years has taken a financial beating losing as much as half the value of their assets.
For the most part the small investor is not as sophisticated as the professionals and we need a fairness break in bringing back the old uptick rule.
I graduated with a Bachelor degree in Business Administration many decades ago and I am struggling to maintain my asset base and to bring some income into my investments. Some months compared to the previous month I lost money even though I try to be conservative in my trades. I do not consider myself skilled in investing as a professional trader.
I do not think there is enough disclosure real time in the hedge funds and the sovereign funds, also.
I am also sure gas and oil prices are manipulated by greedy people and that the American government is not doing enough for fairer prices. Gasoline just jumped more than 30 cents in the last month. Last year I was charged $5.09 per gallon for home heating oil.
Half of my money is in money market funds or CD s earning less than 1% because I do not want to risk it. Most of my friends are fearful of their IRA nest eggs and doing the same thing or are even more protective of their savings. There are trillions of dollars on the sidelines not being invested.
We already learned that some business is unethical, fraudulent, and misrepresent the facts with the liar loans and other problems during the Bush administration. Business needs rules and watchdogs, not the elimination of the rules and the lack of investigation and prosecution of those that seek to manipulate the system. We already tried elimination of rules, watchdogs, and prosecution and we found that does not work.