In a weird way, I am serious about what I am going to write in the next few sentences.

1) I want the Uptick Rule to be reinstated.

2) I want Naked Short Selling to be prevented.

3) I want rumors that hurt long-only investors to be punished.

Those comments might be confusing to frequent readers of mine. Consider what I wrote in Uptick Uptake and the first one seems like I am flip-flopping. But I tell you it’s not. I never advocated for the removal of the Uptick rule and I never endorsed it. I don’t give a shit about the Uptick rule. I just tried to point out how absurd the argument is when bulls want to find excuses for their inability to pump up stock prices. From the recent March lows until the recent May highs the crowd that loves to say “bring back the uptick rule” was pretty quiet.  Of course, if stocks are going up somehow the Uptick rule is not a factor.  So now that we are in a decline, it’s convenient to ramp up the excuses and blame short sellers.

It’s pretty pathetic.  So I am now advocating for the Uptick Rule to be reinstated (as much as I am disgusted by siding with Cramer).  I want all this stuff that is largely meaningless for the direction of stocks to be removed from the discussion.  Let’s make it even more lopsided for bullish sentiment and then, the next time the market goes down I won’t have to hear all these stupid excuses.   Of course, they will come up with new ones…I just am bored with the old ones.