October 2, 2008
I was dismayed to read the SEC had decided to not make public short sale filings by RIAs.
In the Commission's revised statement there was no mention of the logic behind the abrupt reversal. Furthemore, I fail to see the compelling difference which requires a firm maintaining long-only positions in a stock to publicly disclose holdings while granting anonymity to a firm shorting a company's shares.
If the Commission is reluctant to pursue short sellers to determine collusion in staging bear raids to drive firm's share price lower, then it should at the least make the information public so firms and investors can privately pursue those whose actions suggest they are flaunting the nation's security laws. For this reason I urge you to reconsider. The public's interest is best served by public disclosure of short sellers activities.
I look forward to your response explaining this change.
Best regards,
Eric Schaefer