July 13, 2008
Market makers should have no right to be above the law. They have bastardized and compromised legitimate trading and crucified the retail investor. They move stocks up and down based on orders from big shorts or big longs to get them out of their positions and profit at the expense of the average investors. Fundamentals no longer have any place in this market - they are overwhelmed by this behavior. Stocks such as LDK have been on the SHO list for seven months and counting. They went on the SHO list with 7 million shares short. Now there are over 15 million shares short. How can this be? Simple. Criminal behavior from MM's, hedge funds and large brokers is never pursued by the SEC.
When a stock goes on the SHO list, zero additional shares can be allowed to be shorted, including MM's. Any additional shorts should be prosecuted and jailed - they are committing fraud at best.
My suggestions:
Repeal the repeal of the uptick rule
Adopt FTSE rules - any shorts above a certain level have to be immediately disclosed
Eliminate the trading swapping of short positions amongst traders to get past the rules
24 hours to clear illegal shorts or be sold out of positions. Failure to sell them out is a felony with massive penalties attached.
Massive penalties - felony charges and 3x penalty of profits generated on illegal shorting ( would Goldman or any other group risk a $300 million dollar penalty on a $100 million profit and guaranteed jail time? Doubtful.)
Conspiracy between analysts and trading rooms should be a felony offense with culprits jailed and employers penalized into the stratosphere.
If there is insufficient pain to the crooks they will continue to be crooks. If they know it will cost them, their companies, their families and their shareholders dearly, you may just get this under control.