July 19, 2008
The amendment to Regulation SHO should state that ALL naked short selling of publicly traded securities be prohibited and should apply to all exchanges under your authority. Punishment/sanctions must be addressed as well. By neglecting penalties, you render any enforcement effort a waste of your time and my money as a taxpayer.
Naked short selling is no different that counterfeiting our nations currency. As the Federal Reserve has so aptly proven, manufacturing new securities from thin air only serves to artificially decrease the underlying security's value and hurts investors that have bought it with the hope and expectation that it will appreciate in value, only to have their money stolen by the blatant and egregious fraud that is being allowed to perpetrate our markets today.
An overwhelmingly large segment of these investors consist of everyday people without the financial clout to afford legal staff, etc. or the time and/or expertise to protect themselves against this type of thievery. They invest their blood, sweat, and tears into these markets and are putting their trust in the SEC to make sure they are AT LEAST being treated fairly in the markets. You, as the responsible parties of the SEC, owe it to these people to fulfill your duty to protect their livelihood from the firms abusing the system.
In today's markets, an investor has as much chance of a fair shake as they would on an old time carnival midway run by shysters and thieves. Jail time is routinely levied for a common thief that steals a television out of a home or retail store. What happens to a trader that manipulates securities prices to steal the very life savings of America? As it is now, they get a new Bentley.
What they deserve, on the other hand, is the total and permanent revocation of their trading privileges and related licenses. Jail time could be served as a side dish. Restoring confidence in America's markets is the most important job government regulators have at this time. You have quite a task ahead of you.
Regards,
Michael Burton