10/17/2008

Stop the massacre in the stock market

This is the second time I am making this plea. The first time was probably a couple of years back. The meltdown in the stock market is running out of control. Does anyone think that he has some moral responsibility to protect the small investors from the massacre? If not, does anyone think that he has some responsibility to protect the interests of big investors or companies listed in the stock exchange whose shares are turning worthless? They will suffer the same double whammy like the senior executives of Lehman when their shares pledged to banks as collaterals became worthless. The banks will call their loans and liquidity will become zero. Companies will be hit hard in such cases. Individuals could be bankrupt in the process. If these are not important, does anything think it is important to save the stock exchange and the financial industry from collapsing? The indiscriminate sell down of shares in the stock market is like a run on the banks. This is intolerable and unacceptable. I would expect a crisis meeting tonight and over the weekend to address these issues and some actions be taken to temporary stop the carnage. I would suggest the following measures be put into place over the weekend before trading commences on Monday. 1. Stop scrip borrowing for short selling. 2. Ban short selling, naked or with borrowed scripts. 3. Broking houses/funds shall not be allowed to trade without having to pay any commission except for a small clearing fee. A 0.1%, or more if appropriate, shall be made payable to the stock exchange for house/fund's own trade. This will restrain the indiscriminate selling/buying to sell down a stock. 4. A minimal commission be charged to big traders/funds, proprietary traders etc to level the playing field. This must be strictly enforced to prevent undertable deals. Commission can still be negotiable but subject to a minimum determine by the stock exchange. The above measures may greatly affect the volume of trades in the market. But it is healthier to have genuine investors trading rationally in the market, in smaller volumes, than allowing the market to be destroyed. Our market has been driven so low that many stocks are at very good value for investment and funds or rich investors will find them attractive buys at current levels. Let normalcy and sanity return to the market for the time being while more appropriate long term measures be introduced to ensure a market that is viable and sustainable in the long run. Something must be done quickly to prevent a crisis situation over the next few days/weeks. This is my plea.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do emphathise with your plea, many of my friends lost money too. So sad. Kindly stop the carnage before it is too late. Urgent!

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

stock are expected to fall in a crisis like this. that is normal.

but don't be surprise some stocks are being cornered and bashed down everyday. as a result the sharp fall is greatly exaggerated. is anyone monitoring on funds cornering the market and taking them to task?

Anonymous said...

In good times there are also people cornering and pushing up stocks everyday, and all those who happen to own the same stocks will laugh all the way to the bank. How come no one complain about taking them to task?

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

the stocks will be played up and down. but systemic flaws must not be allowed to exist as they will do untold damage to the investors and eventually the destruction of the system itself.