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WASHINGTON — Federal regulators opened a public debate Wednesday over ways to restrict trades that bet against a stock, as investors and lawmakers clamor for brakes on moves they say worsened the market’s downturn.

One option the Securities and Exchange Commission advanced is restoring a Depression-era rule that prohibits short sellers from making their trades until a stock ticks at least one penny above its previous trading price. The goal of the so-called uptick rule is to prevent selling sprees that feed upon themselves — actions that battered the stocks of banks and other companies over the last year.

Another approach would ban short-selling for the rest of the trading session in a stock that declines by 10 percent or more.

Short-selling is legal and widely used on Wall Street. But as the market has plunged, investors and lawmakers have pressed the SEC to reinstate the uptick rule. They say its absence since mid-2007 fanned market volatility, prompting bands of hedge funds and other investors to target weak companies with an avalanche of short-selling totally free credit score.

Another option floated by the SEC, besides reinstating the uptick rule, is a sort of "circuit breaker" for stock prices.

That approach, in three variations, either bans short-selling outright for the rest of the trading session in a stock that declines 10 percent or more, or restricts short-selling of the stock for the rest of the session based on its previous sale price or highest bid.

The fifth alternative, known as an upbid rule, would allow short sellers to come in only at a price above the highest current bid for the stock.

The five SEC commissioners, who voted unanimously to put forward five alternative short-selling plans, could settle on one and formally approve it sometime after a 60-day public comment period.

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