October 1, 2005
To Who it may concern
Please reference SEC File No. 4-500. Request for Rulemaking Regarding Member Records of "Short" Positions and Reporting and Public Dissemination of Aggregate Positions by Security.
I am writing today as a result of seeing a Raging Bull post concerning Short Selling on the Pink and OTCBB markets.
As an investor I continually hear people post that declines in share prices are due to short sellers "shorting" and how brokerage firms do not reconcile the short sales by their customers on a timely basis if at all. I also hear the reverse that when the shorts have to buy to cover that the price of a stock artificially rises. For the gambler that is great, for the long term investor who may not realize the spike is artificial from short selling, the long term investor can get damaged. Are the markets for gamblers or investors who should be investing based upon company facts and not market manipulations.
I for one do not believe short selling should be legal. The concept just does not fit an investing mentality. It does however fit a gambling mentality. I am not an expert in the market and some say that short selling increases liquidity in the markets. Technically it may but what is the problem if someone wants to buy for one price and it is not available, so he has to wait until someone sells a "real" share. Not a phony share that does not exist. If these phony shares are not reconciled in a timely fashion then a company's stock price can get crushed quickly. This forces panic in the market place and people sell out of fear. Gamblers with nerves of steel, pick up the cheap shares and then the average investor is left out in the cold. So far in my opinion the SHO list is just eye wash by politicians. It is not working!
Naked shorting is even more of a criminal activity in my opinion and should have systems in place to detect this and do away with it.
In the world of software programs, it seems hard for me to believe that brokerage firms cannot have the capability to identify a short sale and where the actual share is borrowed from. Those transactions should be specially coded in Level II quotes to denote that it is a short sale and not a sell of an actual share. Then the average investor knows exactly what is transpiring and thus the "Big" guys with access to this kind of realtime data do not have the advantage.
So I support
R. Cromwell Coulson
Chairman & CEO of the Pink Sheets and all that he is trying to do to make the markets fair and equitable
As he states, "There is a crisis facing the OTC market today in the lack of short sale position reporting and disclosure for OTC issues. This lack of transparency regarding short selling in the OTC market allows fraudulent acts to go undiscovered and manipulative short sellers to hide."
"I believe regulators should fix the problem. Small issuers traded on the Pink Sheets and the OTCBB deserve the same transparency and regulatory oversight of short selling as those listed on Exchanges or NASDAQ"
"Therefore, Pink Sheets has petitioned the SEC to cause the amendment of NASD Rule 3360 and require NASD broker dealers to maintain a record of total "short" positions in all customer and proprietary firm accounts in all publicly traded equity securities as well as report this information to the NASD for public dissemination of the short positions by security. The SEC's action is urgently needed to prevent fraudulent acts, expose market manipulation, promote fair principles of trade and protect investors. "
I have even written my Senators and Congressman of New Hampshire begging them to support some form of legislation that will do away short selling and naked short selling which ruins the markets
I have lost approx $250K in SWYC due to naked short selling and illegal activites by the company which the SEC does not have time to monitor (in my opinion the officers of that company should be in jail) and I have lost approx $280K in MRKL by naked short selling and Shell company manipulations that exist through toxic financing which are allowed to happen by the company (as long as they get rich)
The OTC and Pink Sheet markets are a sham and the average investor should not be allowed to invest in these type companies. The average investor needs to be protected from these markets in my opinion.
It's bad enough that the Market Makers are in total control of OTCBB and Pink Sheet daily buys and sells and it is not really driven by actual market movements. There have been numerous times that I have bid more than the ask price and have not gotten filled because it was the MMs desire to take down the price not let it run.
One could argue that the stock markets are no more than a cesspool of white collar crime, something which Presidnet Bush should realize and not allow people to invest there Social Security money in.
I hope this adds to the support to make OTC and Pink Sheet Shorting much much more regulated if not done away with.
thank you for you time in reading this
Lets do something for the little guy to have a fair shake at managing their own money so that they can retire in peace and happiness.
Rick Stevens