Per your request for Regulatory Notice 21-19 regarding Short Positions, please find my comment below. The current requirements for short sale reporting, thorough as they may seem, are woefully inadequate in terms of depth, clarity and public transparency. I'd like to take the time to address what I see as issues that clearly and with immediate care must be addressed when considering short sales, market makers, hedge funds, and legal institutions tapped to enforce laws that clearly have no teeth in terms of punishment or enforcement. While reading these bulleted items I would remind you that Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for his role in a Ponzi scheme, yet hedge funds, market makers, brokerages, and lending institutions and the people who run them go without punishment and often times get bailed out while risking and on a regular basis crash the U.S. economy. You can refer to the 2008 Credit Default Swap while noting there is currently an investigation going on against some of the same players from 2008, being conducted at this very moment. Those players went unpunished and received bailouts from the government. * At face value we can agree without error that naked shorts are illegal. * Under reporting volume of short sales and/or manipulating them as "long" shall be addressed. * The synergy between Market Makers and Hedge Fund ownership must be broken up. When the market maker sets the price and slow roles hedge fund reporting it effects the actual price of a stock. There must be transparency for the retail investor!! * Dark pool high volume trading executed away from public view must end. The playing field must be level and equal when comparing retail investor tools and those tools currently available to hedge funds and other financial institutions. * End the practice of allowing hedge funds to raid ETF's to cover short positions. * Audits of hedge fund short positions must be made more regularly to ensure adherence to laws regarding them. * The revolving door/good ol' boy network between financial institutions and the government must be closed. Often times we see the same players who are investigated or fined for illegal activity simply moving on from a financial institution to take up residence in government, only to return to the private sector and the financial industry a few years later to once again wreak havoc on the U.S economy and the consumer. * As I referenced earlier, if Bernie Madoff gets a sentence of 150 years for a Ponzi scheme, these players who risk our very economy through multiple means of market manipulation must be punished severely and in kind to how Madoff was punished. The message should be clear that if you risk the U.S. economy and the lively hoods of working America, you will be punished with severe consequences. There are certainly more issues to be addressed where hedge funds, market makers and the financial industry is concerned in regard to short selling of stock. None of the issues I have listed above should be news to you. As a matter of fact, I believe you know quite well the amount of manipulation that is taking place where short sales are concerned. After all you are part of the financial industry. If you believe integrity of the man makes the man, all of what I and others like me have commented on should be addressed in a timely and accurate manner with punishment equal to the devastation it does to retail investors and ultimately the U.S. and world economy.
Jerry Logan Comment On Regulatory Notice 21-19
Per your request for Regulatory Notice 21-19 regarding Short Positions, please find my comment below. The current requirements for short sale reporting, thorough as they may seem, are woefully inadequate in terms of depth, clarity and public transparency. I'd like to take the time to address what I see as issues that clearly and with immediate care must be addressed when considering short sales, market makers, hedge funds, and legal institutions tapped to enforce laws that clearly have no teeth in terms of punishment or enforcement. While reading these bulleted items I would remind you that Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for his role in a Ponzi scheme, yet hedge funds, market makers, brokerages, and lending institutions and the people who run them go without punishment and often times get bailed out while risking and on a regular basis crash the U.S. economy. You can refer to the 2008 Credit Default Swap while noting there is currently an investigation going on against some of the same players from 2008, being conducted at this very moment. Those players went unpunished and received bailouts from the government. * At face value we can agree without error that naked shorts are illegal. * Under reporting volume of short sales and/or manipulating them as "long" shall be addressed. * The synergy between Market Makers and Hedge Fund ownership must be broken up. When the market maker sets the price and slow roles hedge fund reporting it effects the actual price of a stock. There must be transparency for the retail investor!! * Dark pool high volume trading executed away from public view must end. The playing field must be level and equal when comparing retail investor tools and those tools currently available to hedge funds and other financial institutions. * End the practice of allowing hedge funds to raid ETF's to cover short positions. * Audits of hedge fund short positions must be made more regularly to ensure adherence to laws regarding them. * The revolving door/good ol' boy network between financial institutions and the government must be closed. Often times we see the same players who are investigated or fined for illegal activity simply moving on from a financial institution to take up residence in government, only to return to the private sector and the financial industry a few years later to once again wreak havoc on the U.S economy and the consumer. * As I referenced earlier, if Bernie Madoff gets a sentence of 150 years for a Ponzi scheme, these players who risk our very economy through multiple means of market manipulation must be punished severely and in kind to how Madoff was punished. The message should be clear that if you risk the U.S. economy and the lively hoods of working America, you will be punished with severe consequences. There are certainly more issues to be addressed where hedge funds, market makers and the financial industry is concerned in regard to short selling of stock. None of the issues I have listed above should be news to you. As a matter of fact, I believe you know quite well the amount of manipulation that is taking place where short sales are concerned. After all you are part of the financial industry. If you believe integrity of the man makes the man, all of what I and others like me have commented on should be addressed in a timely and accurate manner with punishment equal to the devastation it does to retail investors and ultimately the U.S. and world economy.