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Biotech / Medical : Biotech vs. Shorts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Biomaven who wrote (246)	10/23/1999 11:06:00 AM
From: Biomaven	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 427

The SEC is considering relaxing short-sale regulations: The full text of this release is available from the SEC Website at the following address: sec.gov SEC Concept Release: Short Sales Securities and Exchange Commission 17 CFR PART 240 Release No. 34-42037; File No. S7-24-99 RIN 3235-AH84 Short Sales Agency: Securities and Exchange Commission. Action: Concept release; Request for comments. Summary: The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking public comment on the regulation of short sales of securities. In this release, we seek comment on, among other things: lifting the limits on short sales of exchange listed securities under advancing market conditions;providing an exception for actively traded securities; focusing short sale restrictions on certain market events and trading strategies; removing short sale restrictions on hedging transactions; revising short sale regulation in response to certain market developments; revising the definition of "short sale"; extending short sale regulation to non-exchange listed securities; and eliminating short sale regulation altogether. Dates: Comments must be received on or before [insert date that is 60 days after date of publication in the Federal Register]. Addresses: Persons wishing to submit written comments should send three copies to Jonathan G. Katz, Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20549-0609. Comments also may be submitted electronically at the following E-mail address: rule-comments@sec.gov. All comment letters should refer to File No. S7-24-99. Comments submitted by E-mail should include this file number in the subject line. Comment letters received will be available for public inspection and copying in the Commission's Public Reference Room, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20549. Electronically submitted comment letters will be posted on the Commission's Internet web site (http://www.sec.gov). For Further Information Contact: Any of the following attorneys in the Office of Risk Management and Control, Division of Market Regulation, Securities and Exchange Commission, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20549, at (202) 942-0772: James Brigagliano, Alan Reed, or Michael Trocchio. Supplementary Information I. Introduction The Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission) adopted Rule 10a-11 (short sale rule or Rule) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act)2 at a time when the securities markets had less trading volume and simpler trading strategies than current markets. Since the adoption of the short sale rule, securities trading has increased drastically in volume, velocity, and complexity. There have also been substantial improvements in market transparency and surveillance mechanisms. Short sale regulation, however, has remained fundamentally unchanged. This separation between Rule 10a-1 and the markets has resulted in frequent requests for relief from the short sale rule and suggestions for modification of it. Our goal is to examine ways to modernize our approach to provide the most appropriate regulatory structure for short sales. Among other things, we propose to assess whether the restrictions of Rule 10a-1 produce benefits to the markets that are proportionate to the costs associated with those restrictions. We believe that a comprehensive assessment of Rule 10a-1 is necessary to achieve this goal. Therefore, we are seeking public comment on the regulation of short selling. In particular, we solicit comment on eight concepts related to the regulation of short sales of securities: suspending the short sale rule when the security or market is above a threshold price; providing an exception for actively traded securities; focusing short sale restrictions on certain market events and trading strategies; excepting hedging transactions from short sale regulation; revising short sale regulation in response to certain market developments; revising the definition of "short sale"; extending the short sale rule to non-exchange listed securities; and eliminating Rule 10a-1. The comments we receive will assist us in determining whether to propose changes to the short sale rule and in tailoring the scope of any such changes.