October 26, 2011
I can't view the round-table discussion, but
hope very much that this issue was part of
it. Investors in emerging companies with
innovative techs and biotechs and services that could add to the health and well-being of the American people, if allowed to
be treated fairly by those involved in this
increasingly destructive market.
Many of these small companies could help increase the tax base, lower the trade deficit and help America to stay ahead of other nations in science and technology, if they were treated as they are in other countries, not abused by traders and those who say they make a market in them.
Tthis naked shorting still going on with the market makers is a stock killer. I have seen this over and over again these past 25 years.
You ended naked shorting for traders, but not for market makers, and they are abusing this rule day in and day out.
They don't do this to even out trading...they do it to take stocks down
with their small 100,200,300 share trades
after some unknowing investor buys shares
thinking the news was good and that the company should be successful.
There is more manipulation going on now than ever before, and a few of those doing this are bragging about how no one can stop them, and that small investors will not be allowed to make money on stocks as they did before the turn of the century.
The SEC, by allowing this kind of activity, is running away investors, who leave in disgust and anger than their stocks are not protected as the big caps are.
Money is money and ours is just as good as
the larger investors. And these smaller companies have the chance to grow much faster, create more jobs than some of the big caps....if they have a level playing field, that is.
Why would the SEC and Congress even allow these small caps to trade, if they
are not trading in a fair and legal way?
Why not take the market maker out of the mix and just let people buy and sell electronically, if that would help? The President asked in one conversation where are the new techs and biotechs in this nation...why are there so few now? The answer is that our gov. doesn't pass legislation to insure they are not abused as they are today...in the index trading of the Russell 3K...allowing hedge funds to take down the good ones with the bad...harming the image of good stocks and scaring away investors. If a few people
destroying the dreams of many are continued to be allowed to do this and have this power...you will one day have NO
retail investors buying individual companies...it will all be index trading and commodity trading and the financial system will have been destroyed by the negligence of those appointed to oversee
it, to protect it, to insure that all are treated equally.
And since our banks won't lend to these small companies, no matter how great the potential is for success of a given product, they have had to turn to toxic lenders..who in the past, shorted their stocks to gain more for their money lent to the company.
7,000 are gone forever...because no matter how hard they tried, using their life's savings, giving their all, with the games being played against them in trading of their stock...and the toxic loans...they had
no chance to survive.
I will mention one in particular...DNAG.PK
DNAPrint Genomics out of Sarasota, Fl.
This company discovered and brought to market a forensic tool badly needed in the world today...they were able to take dna from a crime scene and tell the authorities
the total makeup of that person's dna..
as they did with the La. serial killer...saving lives for so doing. A witness told police he saw a white male in a white t ruck....and they had questioned the real killer, but let him go...it turned out that DNAG was able to tell them that the evidence proved that the killer was 15% American Indian, 85% African American, and the color of his eyes, hair and texture of hair and other information that helped catch this killer.
Scottland yard even used their serivices...
but they could not get any financial help from the gov...thru grants, etc. or loans from banks...only one hedge fund...and that
is a long and sad story... their doors are locked, their windows shuttered now, and the CEO who gave his all for this science ended up with a broken heart and bank account.
There are so many stories like this...possible cures that could not progress, because of lack of funding and shorting (naked) at the time, going on.
Thousands of investors, having been burned so badly, so often, just gave up and left. You people know this..that more and more are leaving this cess pool of unfairness to all concerned, except the
nano traders and others who control these stocks. Are tax payers and voters expected to accept this situation and continue to invest? they are waking up and leaving this scene, bitter and angry at it for not protecting them as they should have long ago. We had to beg to get naked shorting ended and even a member of the SEC staff wrote in the WSJ that there was no such thing as 'naked shorting, that small investors just were angry that their stocks didn't go up....an outrageous comment, but no one took up for the investors in the financial press...it was for their buddies who
ran the scam that we endured for too many years.
You know all of this and yet, you still allow the market makers to abuse naked shorting...and our Congress, who gets so much re-election funding from Wall St. firms does their, not our bidding.
Will this ever end? Will The SEC step up and do the right thing, for investors and small cap companies that are baffled by this behavior being allowed against them
and the trading of their stocks.
Only one agency, Finra, tried to help us...and they were rebuffed by the powers that be.
Change must come about and very, very soon, or those to blame for inaction will
not be remembered kindly in financial history. To its credit....the SEC has now become more open to investors, not just shorts calling them to try and get a stock stopped trading for their financial benefit
as ACLH had done to it...one short bragged
all over yahoo about how he shorted this stock before calling SEC and getting the company in troub le...for a PR that was, actually, correct in its claim. He also
came in on two conference calls and screamed obscenities so loudly that the company had to end both of them. No one could hear a word...and then posted, bragging about doing that on yahoo as well...he said he owned a big hedge fund and mostly shorted microcaps, going into great detail about his firm...maybe he was lying about that too...but this stock has not traded since then...and these are honest people not out to con anyone..just help clean up the environment, especially oil spills on land.
I know my comments come too late for the round-table...which i knew nothing about
until now....but I do hope they will be read by someone who cares about this nation and the public companies that can be assets in the future that doesn't look that bright as I write this email. Instead of trading mtg. backed sec., the banks should have had their brokers looking into emerging growth companies...doing their homework...finding those that could help turn this economy around,. Anyone who tried to harm the image of, by posting lies, by heavy shorting, etc. these young companies have done, not only the stock, but innocent investors who believed in that same dream the company had...and this nation as a whole, a great deal of harm.
To whomever bothers to read this...thank you for your time, and I do hope that you will share these comments with one or more in that discussion group. And also, thank you at the SEC for beginning to care
about the investors and the companies, not just the paperworks and quarterly reports.
it is long overdue, but much appreciated.
Sincerely,
Sally Prescott
investor