March 12, 2009
Dear SEC, It is obvious the up-tick rule removal was instituted for the purpose of bringing the markets back into alignment more rapidly. Now that this has been done it is time to reinstate the up-tick rule as well as stop allowing these times 2 and 3 funds. If people want to speculate we have margin, futures, options etc. The average investor or advisor has nothing but destruction using these tools as a whole. These investments are much more aggressive than anyone could imagine. The long term ramifications is that it will be the demise of the private investor as volatility will take most average investors out of the market for good. The contracts that that are used on these instruments to construct them are an absolute time bomb waiting to explode due to fraud, misuse, or not working as expected. We need liquidity and I realize mutual funds do not provide it. However closed end funds structure with no leverage and NAV trading should keep them as a good asset class. I have e-mailed spoken to and implored the Commissioners office and would love to dialogue with the SEC on this matter. I am a portfolio manager with over 25 years of experience. Thanks Richard Bell