Date:    01/31/2000  10:17 PM

Subject: File No. S7-24-99

Hello,
     
My name is Thomas Bauer.
     
Regarding short sales, it seems blatantly obvious that large brokerage houses 
are able to use the technique of short selling to deliberate suppress upward 
momentum on share prices. This is an action directly counter to other
rules, whose file numbers I cannot quote, that I have heard of that 
forbid individual brokers to work in teams. When a large brokerage house 
is suppressing a share price via the technique of short selling, is
it not a conglomerate of individuals that go to make up that institution 
that is at work? When the most powerful have unfair tools against 
individual investors, it is time for some sort of legislation, if only 
to level the playing field.
     
This is my opinion, and I am confident this is the opinion of countless 
individual investors, as I have seen on numerous message boards.
     
Stop the unfair advantage of powerful short selling by large institutions!
     
Thanks for reading
     
 Thomas Bauer, Individual Investor at Large