Subject: File No. S7-24-99 (Input) Author: "Brian Wallace" at Internet Date: 11/17/99 1:31 PM As a new investor with little working capital I have chosen to work with affordable OTC stocks that I can afford to buy and generate more working capital from. I whole-heartedly support the comments below regarding a change to the shorting rules. I know that there are many, many people who in trying to make a decent living, are suffering at the hands of unscrupulous Market Makers who use Shorting stocks on thet OTCBB to thrash these stocks and create outrageous movements which ultimately hurt the average investor. I fully urge a change of the Short rule to include the OTC stocks. Brian E. Wallace II Securities traded in the OTC markets (e.g., Nasdaq Small Cap, the NASD's OTCBB, the Pink Sheets) are presently not subject to short sale restrictions. This frequently results in short sale abuses involving securities. I believe that the biggest threat to the OTC BB market order is the outrageous stock price manipulation by some market makers and foreign brokerage firms. Particularly, illegal shorting (creating shares to sell short) is the biggest fraud ever seen in the stock market. When a company has only about 10 million outstanding shares and some brokerage firms can sell unlimited non-existent shares, market order cannot be established. If the SEC is really serious about protecting the public from any frauds and is willing fight against these big firms, the SEC should regulate short sales in any stock markets as listed stocks. This will ensure that everybody adheres to the same rules.