It’s pretty weak tea compared to the uptick rule, but it’s better than nothing:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission curbed some bearish stock bets, ending a yearlong debate between individual investors and Wall Street with a solution that fails to satisfy anyone.

SEC commissioners voted 3-2 today to restrict short sales of a company’s stock once it falls 10 percent from the previous day’s closing price. When the 10 percent threshold is triggered, traders could only execute short sales for the stock at a price above the market’s best bid. The curb would be in place through the following day.

General Electric Co., Charles Schwab Corp. and more than 5,600 people who signed a petition sent to the SEC wanted a short-selling restriction that was always in effect, similar to the so-called uptick rule the agency abolished in 2007. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and hedge funds Citadel Investment Group LLC and D.E. Shaw & Co. lobbied against a limit.

You only need to know who was for it, and who was against it, and go against the Vampire Squid.

Short selling has a role, but there needs to be a balance between what ever “price discovery” function it has, and the ability that it gives for people to create wild swings in prices for speculation.