From: C. D. Brown [mailto:bitsboy@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 9:41 AM
To: marketreg@sec.gov
Subject: Short Selling Rules (or lack thereof)


A recent news article suggested the SEC staff has proposed a rule banning 
the practice of naked short selling.   I hope and pray it is adopted by the SEC.

The huge hedge funds and investment banks have destroyed the confidence of 
individual investors in the stock market.  With hundreds of millions or even 
billions of dollars as weapons, these entities select stocks for destruction, 
then begin massive unrelenting short selling to accomplish that goal.   

Short selling should require actual borrowing of the shares, one for one.   If 
borrowed from brokers holding the shares of clients in the  street names, written 
consent of the true equitable owner should be required prior to lending the share 
for shorting.   Imagine the individual investor who has invested hard earned money 
to purchase a stock having his or her shares loaned for short sales without his 
or her knowledge of consent.   That investment is then damaged by the short sellers.   
Thereafter, the short sellers cover by purchasing the security at a much lower price 
and quietly returns it to the broker.   The stock owner has no idea what happened.  
The short seller and broker made profits and the share owner was the unknowing victim.

Naked short shelling, as I understand it, allows for massive selling of shares without 
even borrowing shares to sell.   That practice is beyond belief.   All that is required 
to destroy a stock is a war chest of a few hundred million or perhaps a billion.   
Wall Street has truly become a casino.  

If the public understood how short sales by hedge funds actually occur, their remaining 
investment in the markets would be liquidated and placed in bank CDs.  

C. D. Brown, 508-I Airport Road, Panama City, FL 32405





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8.