August 13, 2008
Gentlemen:
As an individual investor (reluctantly still) participating in the US capital markets I am very concerned about the pernicious effects of naked short selling.
The practice is highly disruptive and distorting market based price discovery for many securities, especially those of smaller issuers. At the same time, this cancer is spreading ever faster and volume is rapidly increasing.
In fact it must be said that investors are being driven away from these improperly regulated and insufficiently supervised markets where nothing less than criminal collusion by hedge funds, institutional investors and willing brokers/dealers, transfer agents and the DTCC are inflicting great damage on lawful market participants and expropriating our savings while lining the pockets of the participants in these rackets.
I am aware of many investors who by now avoid participation in US stock markets to the largest extent possible due to these concerns about naked short selling and the unwillingness of the powers that be to put a stop to it. Left unchecked, this practice will eventually inflict not only great harm to individual investors, but in the end to US capital markets as well.
Best regards,
Stefan Pawlik