July 17, 2008
I find it insightful that the SEC can respond within a matter of days when shareholders of seventeen specific companies are threatened by abusive short selling, financial institutions with which the SEC has had a close working relationship with over the years in the investment and business community. The regulators not only respond immediately, but implement a realistic approach to the abuse by “requiring all persons to borrow or arrange to borrow the securities … prior to effecting an order for a short sale of those securities”. Perhaps the SEC could extend the same courtesy to investors of other industries like mining and biotechnology and not just those struggling in the financial services sector (i.e. equal protection under the law). When eliminating the options market maker exception as drafted, regulators should consider inserting a provision requiring shorted shares to be pre-borrowed and not just identified. Inserting provisions into regulation SHO at the last minute is not without precedent. I understand that the destruction of thousands of small companies over the years has not caused a substantial disruption in the securities markets because of their size (they were not a Bear Stearns, a Lehman Brothers, a Freddie Mac, or a Fannie Mae). But at the time it was an emergency to them and continues to be an emergency to those so affected. Four years is an awful long time to be digesting a regulation of such importance. Please eliminate the options market maker exception and do so quickly. Brent Hyatt