August 6, 2009
as to naked/short selling, the SEC wants to do WHATS BEST FOR THE INVESTOR.
since the power of large groups of short sellers is detrimental to the average investor (e.g. mom and pops, middle income investors) the existance of short selling should be ABOLISHED. an example of how short sellers are detrimental to the average investor is the LEHMAN BROTHERS FIASCO not too many months ago. THE "GANGS" of shorts moved in and drove down the pps (price per share) to a sad conclusion: LEHMAN BROTHERS IS GONE. the SEC aware of what was happening,TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED SHORTING AT THAT TIME. what the SEC seems to neglect is that on any given day short selling can drastically reduce the value of any company's stock. THAT IS WRONG. equity stocks should be bought and sold in a normal manner (which excludes gimmicks like shorting). if a company does good, the pps goes up, if a company does bad NORMAL SELLING will take the pps down (but not devastate a stock with short sellers moving in to short millions of shares).
so the SEC should ask itself: WHO DOES SHORT SELLING BENEFIT? the average investors? or is it really a gimmick for the richy richs to use at their whim and laugh all the way to the bank?
now-a-days we see the markets with big swings up and down on a weekly, if not daily basis. DO AWAY WITH SHORTING AND THOSE SWINGS WILL CEASE. make investing in wall street advantageous to investors, not the casino-like gamble that it currently seems to be. normal buying and selling of equitys will tell the truth of a companys worth. what could possibly be wrong with that? SHORT SELLING IS NOT THE FRIEND OF INVESTORS AS IT DISTORTS THE TRUTHFUL VALUE OF A COMPANY TO THE DETRIMENT OF NORMAL INVESTORS.
however, since it is unlikely that the SEC will abolish short selling, i suggest the following 2 rules:
1) no more NAKED SHORT SELLING, not now, not ever and
2) equity stocks under $10 per share will not be allowed
to be shorted (that will preclude the power of short
sellers to drive a company out of business).
final comment: although the SEC says it wants to do WHATS BEST FOR THE INVESTOR, unless short selling is abolished, that will not come to fruition. so hopefully, the SEC will at least place more meaningful restrictions on short selling, and WILL AVIDLY PURSUE AND PROSECUTE VIOLATORS.
ALL THE ABOVE IS MY HUMBLE OPINION
THANK YOU
TOM TRAVIS