December 21, 2006
I want to register my opposition to the current situation of market exchanges recently beginning to operate as 'for-profit enterprises.'
As has been the case historically, I believe that the market exchanges, and market related data they oversee and supply, should be treated as a public good that should be widely available, without associated fees and without being treated as revenue-producing streams for the market exchanges.
Even if, and I do not advocate this, market data required a fee-for-use as some sort of administrative coverage, such a fee should be so nominal and minimal that it were almost unnoticeable.
Rather, market data should be widely available and affordable to ensure market transparency and create a level playing field among all traders and investors — not just institutions and professionals.
I urge you to reconsider this trend, and return to a more open and distributed form of market exchange/data availability.