May 9, 2009
The absence of the uptick rule has allowed hedge funds and other large market players to attack stocks and send them down without pause destroying value held by ordinary investors and badly damaging the reputation of the stock market as an even playing field. The decision to eliminate the uptick rule was made based on a shoddy analysis that looked at data when the market was in a strong uptrend. They could have used data from previous downtrends but either chose not to do so or lacked the analytical skill to understand that such data was needed.
The SEC needs to end their reliance on this erroneous analysis and take up their responsibility to regulate the stock market in a way that protects the ordinary investor.