Kyle Siskey
Staff writer
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is changing its tune on the up-tick rule decision from 2007 in the face of a plunging stock market. Chairman Mary Schapiro told a House Appropriation Subcommittee on March 11 she plans to reinstate Rule 10a-1, usually referred to as the up-tick rule, after discussions on "short-sale price tests" scheduled for April 8.
"The Commission will consider other steps necessary to eliminate manipulative and illegal activity in our markets, and limit market volatility," said Schapiro. While Schapiro didn't name the up-tick rule specifically, an SEC press release does confirm the Commission's meeting. And Elizabeth King, Associate Director in the Division of Trading and Markets, confirmed a month earlier to the Security Traders Association of Chicago that the up-tick rule is the SEC's target in price-test rules.
"The SEC's political critics want to limit short selling," says one former...