comment letter

Regulatory Affairs 1 North Jefferson Ave St. Louis, MO 63103 MO 3110 314-955-6851 Fax 314-955-9668 September 17, 2009 Via Email:rule-comments@sec.gov Ms. Elizabeth M. Murphy Secretary Securities and Exchange Commission 100 F Street, N.E. Washington, DC 20549 Re: File No. S7-08-09 Comments on the Alternative Uptick Rule (Reg SHO) Dear Ms. Murphy: Wells Fargo Advisors (“WFA”) appreciates this opportunity to comment briefly on the alternative uptick rule proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “the Commission”) as it re-opened the comment period on amendments to Regulation SHO. The alternative uptick rule would allow short selling only at a price above the current national best bid. For the reasons discussed below, WFA supplements its earlier 1comment letter to support this alternative uptick rule. WFA consists of brokerage operations that administer over $900 billion in client assets. It accomplishes this task through 15,600 full-service financial advisors in 1,100 branch offices in all 50 states and 5,900 licensed financial specialists in 6,610 retail bank branches in 39 states. Until its repeal in 2007, the uptick rule had as its purpose the elimination of the possibility for short sellers to exacerbate and accelerate a decline in a stock’s price. After re-opening the comment period, the SEC suggests that commenters consider the alternative uptick rule. In either an advancing or ...