Check out this article: Alert SEC Proposes to Eliminate Price Restrictions on Short Sales December 2006 On December 4, 2006, the SEC voted to propose eliminating the âtick testâ of its Rule 10a-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (âExchange Actâ) as well as any comparable SRO rules restricting the price of short sales, such as the âbid testâ of NASD Rule 5100 and NASDAQ Rule 3350. If approved, in addition to easing the restrictions on all short sellers, it will also eliminate a significant regulatory burden on the brokerage industry. For more information, please open the attached file or you can visit: http://www.bingham.com/alerts/im to view the attached alert. <<SEC SHO Update Bingham McCutchen.pdf>> Circular 230 Disclosure: Internal Revenue Service regulations provide that, for the purpose of avoiding certain penalties under the Internal Revenue Code, taxpayers may rely only on opinions of counsel that meet specific requirements set forth in the regulations, including a requirement that such opinions contain extensive factual and legal discussion and analysis. Any tax advice that may be contained herein does not constitute an opinion that meets the requirements of the regulations. Any such tax advice therefore cannot be used, and was not intended or written to be used, for the purpose of avoiding any federal tax penalties that the Internal Revenue Service may attempt to impose. ©2006 Bingham McCutchen LLP To communicate with us regarding protection of your personal information or if you would like to subscribe or unsubscribe to some or all of Bingham McCutchen LLP's electronic and mail communications, please notify our Privacy Administrator at privacyUS@bingham.com or privacyUK@bingham.com. Our privacy policy is available at http://www.bingham.com/privacy.asp. We can also be reached by mail in the U.S. at 150 Federal Street, Boston, MA 02110-1726, ATT: Privacy Administrator, or in the U.K. at 41 Lothbury, London, England EC2R 7HF, ATT: Privacy Administrator. A list of Partners' names and their professional qualifications is open for inspection at 41 Lothbury, London, England EC2R 7HF. Bingham McCutchen LLP is a limited liability partnership existing under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, regulated by the Law Society. All partners are either Registered Foreign Lawyers or Solicitors. This communication is being circulated to Bingham McCutchen LLP's clients and friends and may be considered advertising. It is not intended to provide legal advice addressed to a particular situation.
After about seventy years, a rule created to make it more difficult to drive a stock's price down may be eliminated as "unnecessary". Who says they don't ring bells at tops?