From: joseph weldon [weldnj@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 3:33 PM
To: rule-comments@sec.gov
Subject: File No. S7-23-03

SEC,

I would like to limit my comments to the issue of "naked" shorting in 
regards to these rule proposals. First, thank you for finally, publicly, 
bringing this subject front and center. That being said. I believe all we 
got here is more "smoke and mirrors" regulation. Rest assured investor's 
will not let this issue go without proper resolution and fairness on this 
issue towards investor's. Unfortunately, we find ourselves addressing this 
issue because of the lack of policing and enforcement of current rules by 
the SEC. It's apparent that all of wall street has very little respect for 
the SEC in regards to trading rules. How many years does a problem have to 
fester before the SEC acts to protect the integrity of the market? The fines 
and penalties are just the cost of doing business to these organizations 
involved in this illegal activity. A small portion of the profits realized! 
How do these new proposals eliminate current naked short positions which you 
admit exist? What stops the brokers and market makers from "rolling" the 
shares around to avoid settlement dates? The biggest problem appears to be 
with the DTCC. What in this proposal addresses their lack of accounting of 
shares? Let me propose a simple solution to the naked shorting problem. 
ENFORCE THE RULES! And, send an independent auditor over to the DTCC. Let 
them locate the share deficiencies you admit exist. Then FORCE a buy in of 
the shares to even out the naked short positions. The only way to seriously 
stop naked shorting is to financially hurt the entities that are recklessly 
doing the shorting. Forcing share buy-ins will prevent just about all future 
naked shorting! The fact that naked shorting is even a part of the market 
should be considered an embarrassment to the SEC. It's time for the SEC to 
stand up!

J. Weldon

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