The Death of the Uptick Rule and It's Impact on Markets

The uptick rule is an arcane rule that was basically meaningless in our very liquid market. It was only relevant in my trading in related to heavily shorted and illiquid biotech stocks on days when they were falling sharply. Nothing changed on July 6. The market became heavily shorted earlier in the year. Many quant managers start trying to explain why all their models failed again and why they lost tons of money last week. The removal of the uptick rule has not been a factor.

Elimination of the uptick rule is just another technique that lets the few stick it to the many. Those very few have the inside information and fast trades that let them see that trend and make a quick million or so before normal people that trade long wake up. Other rules should also be corrected to level the trading arena. Dave

This is the elephant in the room but this elephant is invisible. Bush appointees effectively have facilitated a way for hedge funds and major financial houses to pay down the myriad debts on their books that they're currently writing down. Novice retail investors can't compete. Who could have known a company with sales of an Apple could tank the way it did without help from the shorts. Shorting has reached unprecedented levels and chances are we wouldn't even need the stimulus if the markets were'nt tanking in concert. If you don't think so then you're part of the problem and benefitting from it.