May 9, 2010
I am a retired stock broker, who uses technical analysis to trade the market for my own investments. I have been investing in this way since 1984. This is not the first time I have written to the SEC. I whole-heartedly agree with the proposed large trader rule. The rapid growth of computerized trading, done in milliseconds, on off-exchanges violates all the principles of fair markets. Why should someone with a faster computer, and deep pockets, be able to side step reporting regulations by trading off exhange in a dark pool?
Thursday and Friday's trading (May 6th and 7th) are a horrible example of our future. The SEC must get things under control. In addition to the proposed large trader rule you must institute REAL AND EFFECTIVE CIRCUIT BREAKERS. They must be enforced on any exchange that trades the stock being affected. ALL exchanges must stop trading for the same time period. That must also include options exhanges, since the underlying options are often used to sidestep the circuit breakers. Indexes and ETF's can be affected by moves in heavily weighted stocks, and should be halted too. Your SEC agents need to start paying attention. Please fire those agents who spent so much time looking at pornography while the markets fell apart