MessageFrom: Barnaby Page [bmp@nfr.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 3:10 PM
To: rule-comments@sec.gov
Subject: naked short selling comments (s7-23-03)

I have watched small companies borrow money
under a "toxic preferred" and then quickly see their
stock price go to pennies, get de listed and considered
a worthless company.  It is the hedge funds that made
the stock and thereby company worthless.  But even more
heinous is the fact that the DTC which is run by the brokerage firms,
is not enforcing the delivery of shares and leaving trades open.
Some of these small companies have resorted to issuing
paper certificates to attempt to stem the electronic entry of
shares.  
 
How can any portion of the broker dealer community be trusted
if this activity is allowed to continue?  Who will force the brokers
to buy in those shares?  It is a house of cards. How many stocks
have short positions that are larger than their float?
 
Why is it that Worldcom can be corrupt and be fined and reduced
to pennies a share, but still be considered "a real company".  While
small businesses that have followed proper SEC regs can be illegally
reduced to pennies and once they reach that state, no one cares because
they are just penny stocks.  They wouldnt be penny stocks if you didnt
allow the fox to run the hen house.  If you force those firms to deliver the
shares there will be a short squeeze and it will cost those firms millions
(billions?) of dollars.  It is in the broker-dealers interest to have those
penny stocks go out of business once they and their hedge funds have
squeezed the commission and life out of them.  It is time for the SEC
to enforce the rules on the books against the DTC and broker-dealer
community and come to the aid of the small investor and the small business.
 
Why hasnt Elliott Spitzer picked up on this one yet?  Is it too 
much of a powder keg?
 
 
 

Barnaby Page
 
 
**The comments above are in no way related to
the company from which they were sent.