Subject: File No. S7-31-08
From: Reza Ganjavi
Affiliation: Reza Ganjavi, Musician, Scientist, Philosopher, Management Consultant, Citizen Journalist

January 11, 2009

Why Hedge Fund Manager (TFS Capital), Larry S. Eiben's rationale does not hold water and why the SEC should allow investors to know the identity of large short sellers.

The hedge fund manager objects to the rule on two fronts but his reasoning is faulty at best. First, he thinks the rule is unlikely to be cost beneficial to investors. This depends on who he calls investors. I can assure you if investors know who the large short sellers are just like they know who the large longs are, they could make much better decision and save a lot of costs involved in investing in a manipulated, rigged market while the manipulators have the protection of SEC that their identity will not be revealed. Yes, I do call short sellers who gang up on a company, spread wrong rumors, commission faulty research reports, pay journalists and others to bash the company, manipulators.

Eiben's second objection which he calls philosophical is completely without merit. The double standard is the way it is now, where large longs are identified but large shorts are unidentified to the public. That is a double-standard that benefits the shorts hugely.

'In other words, this rule creates the impression that there are more bad apples in the short selling population than in general', the hedge fund manager writes.

That is simply a fact. It is a hard fact to face for the manipulators but it is so. How many long managers pay journalists and analysts and message board agents to spread false rumors about the company? Short sellers have been known to do this far more frequently. Yes, indeed, there are more bad apples in the short selling population than in general.

Do we need to remind this hedge fund manager who is trying to lobby the SEC to continue help keep large short sellers' identities quiet that it is shorts not longs who engage in naked short selling.

Is it not time for the SEC to stop protecting the identity of large short sellers and help investors know who are the entities who are ganging up on them? At the very least it helps the companies who are victims of such manipulative behaviors, to know who to go to for financing and be better protected against predatory practices of toxic pipes. That is the least the SEC could do.

Instead of acting though, the SEC is giving more and more time for large short sellers to remain hidden and continue to wreck havoc in the financial markets and ruin good companies, and thereby further ruin the economy. Wake up SEC. It is time to fight for Main Street not for Wall Street. Let us know who are the large short sellers.