No Own - No Sell

[Bird of Prey]

Poet,

I've been reading your commentary on the petition. As co-Author I'd like to clarify a few points.

1. Concerning Calling for Certs - Having worked with several brokers over a number of years, I do know that the situation Gary describes about not actually being able to get one's certs does happen. I also know that especially with discount brokers you can get different information on the same subject depending on who you have on the other end of the line. Some of the "brokers" working for discount houses are very "market inept". I have had to talk more than one through a buy-write transaction myself. It would not surprise me to discover that a discount house "broker" might not have all of the information necessary to answer your question.
2. The petition addresses "unregulated" shorting by requiring that collateral equal to what long investors put up be required before they are allowed to short. Under the current rules shorts have a distinct advantage in margin requirements and loan fees over longs. Further the restrictions placed on U.S. investors are not in place for the shorts in overseas markets. These individuals and firms collectively have the capital necessary to bring down the U.S. market in it's current weakened condition. It is our contention that either by being in league with the terrorists or in taking advantage of the "opportunity" presented...a world-wide consortium is actively shorting the U.S. market to hamstring it's economy and weaken it's power in the world. The terrorists among them may even be hoping for a global depression to result from these actions that will plunge the world into a new "Dark Age" where their brand of fundamentalism once flourished.
3. Our petition does not address put options trading or prevent any of the "covered" options strategies that involve short sales. The only change would be a larger amount of cash required to support the trade.

Simply put what we are trying to call attention to is the rampant sell orders coming in to our markets from outside the U.S. that use our own long positions as collateral to back their short positions. We are not saying that they make up ALL of the selling going on, but we do feel they are the catalyst fueling the downturn. They initiate a trend down, institutions follow and small investors get caught at the bottom of the pyramid. In this case when the market seems poised to recover or actually begins to rally the off-shore shorts initiate another wave. We have made it too inexpensive for them to do this...that must change.


The Bird of Prey

The End Days are upon us.