On Tuesday, March 10, 2009, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, announced plans to reinstate the "Uptick Rule." The Rule, which appeared as Rule 10a-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, mandated that every short sale transaction be entered into at a price that is higher than the price of the previous trade in the stock.1 Established in the wake of the Great Depression, the initial purpose of the Rule was to prevent short sellers from conducting bear raids on companies whose stock prices were falling dramatically, resulting in short sellers being the primary cause of a stock price's rapid decline.

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