May 4, 2009
I am not a hedge fund manager or derivatives expert. I am a Federal Government employee who took the time to read investment books, and try to learn how to be more responsible with my personal finances. Sadly, instead of growing my money last year when I so proudly opened my ETrade IRA account, I lost way more than I made. Since I average 98% in my accounting classes, I figured maybe I was missing something on the Corporate balance sheets I read, or that I was not doing enough "homework" (I am a proud fan of Jim Cramer, he TEACHES too.) before I mapped out my stock trades. Nope...I read the statements right, but I then found out the real deal. The uptick rule keep the market from being unfair. I keep track of my stocks on Google's free finance page, and I started reading more of the comments posted for each stock by other traders. Everyone who bragged about 'shorting' a stock was making money and I seemed to just donate all my money to their cause. Then I discovered the major product that seemed to fit the bill: ProShares UltraShort products. They have an ETF to short everything traded. Just play the game and ruin someone's company by the time the bell rang at the end of the day. Once I read how the Uptick Rule and all the market manipulation worked, I stopped putting money into the market. I have lost thousands, but I can't waste more money on a market that is so unfair. I only blame myself, but I am still amazed that this is legal Most people who short stocks don't even have the money for the stock and don't even own the stock before they short it. it should not be called naked selling, it is a naked shame I have never used margin trading and all my trades have been fair and square, but with this type of crap table system, I am on the loosing end of a sucker bet from the COME line. Hedge funds will continue to be able to pay billions for bonus money and I will be left claiming my losses on my income taxes. Many Americans at this point try to invest on their own because they do not trust the Bernie Madoff's of the world and we see that at this point, even if you complain, it seems if nothing will be done. I don't have the connections and couldn't afford to invest money with a hedge fund, I have less than $20K invested (Lost 60%) and I would not trust giving them money. Normal Americans don't want much. We watch or little TSP funds (shorted) and maybe another account like an ETrade or some other IRA account. We watch CNBC and read news articles because that is what makes investing fun. It is not so fun when that system is not working in a fair manner and when the rules have been removed to present a more "pure" capitol environment, it only proves to benefit people who will cheat and constantly figure out ways to beat the system because of their greed. I hear people talk about confidence in the market...(the DNDN situation is strange) this is the type of thing that makes us loose confidence in the market. What most Americans want is just a fair chance to invest in American Companies and feel that because we do read the balance sheets and listen to the calls and read the news that we are making educated selections on investing in American products that we use everyday, instead of a system that allows ETF's like SKF to determine if stocks live or die. I no longer have to do my homework to know how my stocks will perform on a daily basis. I go on my iphone, and look at my pre-set list of stocks. First, I check "SKF" (ProShares UltraShort Financials) Today 5/4/09 it was down -10.51 Once I saw that it was down, I got excited because that meant that my stocks were up and they were. Even FRE had a chance. Any day that 'SKF' is up at least 2 points, I know I took a hit. That is also why the market is so crazy now. People now take the smallest profit, just because you know it will be wiped out 10 min after the shorts come out. We take our profits even if it is $50 sometimes just so you don't loose money you just don't have confidence because you know if you increased 5% then you will be shorted by 10% the next day. Knowing this just makes me feel that no matter what, I just follow what the short sellers do and do the opposite, but I just want to know if the up-tick rule will be put back in because if not, I will sell all my stocks and just use the SKF myself to make some money back. As I stated, I am new to trading but it didn't take long to figure out this madness. I can't day trade to protect myself from keeping the 'shorts' at bay either. And to think that the market was safe from 1938 to 2007 and it only took a year for the market to crash? Was this planned? It seems that this is part of the foundation of a stable market and the legs were knocked from under it. I am not being critical, but just wish that someone would try putting the foundation back under us, otherwise like I said, I will have to adapt and just become a short myself.
Thank you for allowing us to comment here, it means a lot.