From: chris berntsen [cberntsen2004@yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 11:51 AM To: rule-comments@sec.gov Subject: file# s7-23-03 Dear Sir or Madam, I'll sum up this proposal in two words, Bad Idea. As a professional trader, licensed with my series 7,63,24,55, I feel restricting short selling to one(1) cent above bid would be detrimental to my livelihood. I trade the market primarily on the long side and like to buy on bid. Limiting a short seller from hitting my bids will make it much harder for me to buy stock. The market is made up of speculators and by limiting choices you limit opportunities for everyone( shorts and longs). I suggest removing restrictions on shorting all NASDAQ nms securities in the Russell index. If someone wants to buy and sell at a particular price it should not matter what tick its on. Restrictions on short selling should only come into play when unusual downside activity occurs (IE. NASDAQ drops 5-10% or curbs come into play in the Dow). Stocks which are not as liquid (IE. trade under 1 mil shares) should be subject to current bid tick rule. If a current nms security is bid 17.50 and offered at 17.65 and I'm willing to pay 17.55 i should not be limited to only a long seller who can hit my bid. Wall street is made up of differences in opinions and it is those opinions that provide liquidity. In summary, I feel this proposal would be detrimental to the markets, lower trading volumes on all exchanges, and hurt the livelihoods of the small day traders like myself. Market makers don't make markets anymore..ECN's do..allow trading at any price under normal market conditions, and within the inside market. Intra-day trading is done by licensed professional traders(7&55)and speculators, and this new proposal will hinder their performance. Thanks for our attention to this matter, Chris Berntsen Trader -Trillium Securities -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Find out what made the Top Yahoo! Searches of 2003