Reuters reports: SEC working on bringing back the uptick rule

I’ve been beating the drum to bring back the uptick rule pretty steadily lately.  Sorry if I am seeming like I can only sing one tune, but in my opinion, this is a very, very important issue.

I’ll continue to press this issue until the SEC makes that simple change in the market regulations to bring some basic fairness back to the financial markets.  And according to a report by Reuters today, that day may be coming soon.

W00t!

Click on the “Read More and Comment” link to read the entire report from Reuters.  It does indeed look like very good news.

Hooray for Senator Edward Kaufman [D-DE]

On the floor of the US Senate this week, the fight to return basic fairness to the financial markets took a huge step forward.  Here is the text from the Record:

Record Text

FAIRNESS OF FINANCIAL MARKETS — (Senate – March 19, 2009)<p><center><pre>[Page: S. 3536]

Sen. Edward Kaufman [D-DE]: Mr. President, I wish to spend a few minutes talking about action that needs to be taken to restore the credibility of the fairness of the American financial markets.

On Monday, Senators Isakson, Tester, and I introduced S. 605, which directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to write regulations that will deal effectively with abusive short selling.

One of the abusive techniques addressed in the bill is so-called “naked short selling.” Naked short selling is when traders sell shares they don’t own and have no ability to deliver at the time of sale–which dilutes the value of a company’s shares and can drive prices down artificially.

Momentum building to finally move from talking to fixing?

You probably saw my March 7 post below.  Things are beginning to look up a little.

Today, Barney Frank of the House Financial Services Committee said “I’ve spoken to Chair (Mary) Schapire of the SEC.  I am hopeful the uptick rule will be restored within a month.”  Uptick Rule To Be Restored Soon: CNBC.com

Even better — a new blog was just created to talk about fixing the problems.  I highly encourage all to go to Just fix it! and see what you can do.

Write your Representative!  Write your Senators!

Your opinion does matter, and now is the time to act – not to just sit back and complain.

Time to Stop Talking and Start Fixing

The time for talk is done – now it is the time for action.

No question that the economy is broken.  Plenty of people have said plenty of things about that.  Enough!

What actions?  I’m sure that there are a great many of things that would be useful.  But earlier today, I saw a wonderful list posted by idannyb on the excellent Apple Sanity stock message board (free, but application and acceptance required).  That list deserves wider dissemination – in fact, I encourage everyone that reads this post to further disseminate it by sharing it with as many people as you can.

Taxes make the world go round

Today, I am reviewing tax returns.  Lots and lots of tax returns.  I manage three distinct families of venture capital funds, each of which requires returns for two limited partnerships, a general partner, and a management company.  The most complex fund requires tax returns for five different entities.