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Pastimes : MANIPULATION IS RAMPANT --- Can We Stop It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LPS5 who wrote (112)	5/12/2002 10:36:24 PM
From: mst2000	Respond to of 589

Thanks, LPS5. The questions were almost all rhetorical, not direct. I agree that "equal" access is a concept that has little meaning in any market. But I think the question I raise regarding accountability is relevant (although it too was not directly aimed at you or anybody in particular -- it was definitely rhetorical): Should the regulatory authorities regulate "manipulative dishonesty" by companies and their perceived agents differently than they regulate "manipulative dishonesty" by others in the market (i.e., individuals, hedge funds, professional shorts, self-proclaimed message board scam busters, even well-meaning individuals, etc.)? I do think it is a fair question, since, like it or not, regulatory authorities do engage in enforcement activity (and thus the question of whether they act even-handedly with all of the players in the markets they regulate is a legitimate area of inquiry). I'm not sure the post you referred me to addresses that one, other in expressing the view that regulatory authorities (public and private) do little or nothing (particularly in comparison to the markets own inherent forces) to make things better in the area of fairness, manipulation, etc. (a viewpoint with which I generally agree -- though I still think that there are more than enough individual "bad actors" out there which the market by itself cannot otherwise restrain until after the fact that ongoing scrutiny and enforcement of the markets by the "public" remains a necessity -- however inefficiently and arbitrarily is it administered by the government or SROs). MST