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Mr. Jonathan G Katz
The reason for this letter is to help from making a big mistake by introducing Regulation SHO into the market place. I am a registered representative with Trillium Securities and have over three years of experience in Nasdaq traded securities. The main proposal in Regulation SHO that is a big concern to me is introducing a new uniform bid test allowing short sales to be affected at a price of one cent over the best bid at the time of the execution. This rule would give way to much power to market makers trying to hold stocks up for their benefit and then be able to manipulate the stock down when there done filling their order. This is not true to the market. There is too much power for them to take advantage of. The market would be better off if everyone was able to sell when the stocks are sells a buy when the stocks are buys. The true price of a stock will very rarely be accomplished, for instance market maker, X, sits on the bid while selling the stock on the offer, holding the stock up. He knows he can tick up and not get hit. Then ticks up and makes the stock look even better and sells the rest of his order, now he drops off of the bid. This is taking advantage of his power and now he can short the stock at anytime and at any price and bring it down to its true value. Why should this be allowed? Regulation SHO also talks about a pilot program where it will put a two year suspension on the bid test rule for some specified stocks that are very active or have a lot of volume. The stocks that are excluded from the bid test rule will be better off. They will be more true to the market, everyone has the same advantage to sell stock that is week and buy stock that is strong. This would be much better for the market. It wouldn't be over inflated just because the power of market makers. The playing field will be much more level in these stocks. Hopefully this letter will help you see how level the playing field would be without this rule. There has to be a way that customers, investors, traders, and institutions all have the same opportunities as one another. This rule does nothing but give false strength to stocks and the market. Don't let this happen. Please take serious consideration into how unlevel the playing field would be if some could short sell whenever and other wouldn't. Think about how manipulative someone could be with this rule in place. Thank you, Chris Freddo |