Jun. 6, 2022
To whom it may concern, As a retail investor, I support and strongly push for the immediate implementation and enforcement of Petition 4-785 - To invoke SEC Rule 304 (a)(4) and suspend/remove GME and AMC across all ATS dark pools for at least 14 days. The data clearly shows that for at least the past 18 months, the price movement of ticker symbols $GME and $AMC, among many other highly shorted stocks, have not been consistent with price discovery/supply and demand/buy-and-sell ratios. Charts and reports show that on an almost daily basis, buy orders are higher than sell orders. On a normal market, this should result in price movement trending upwards. It is now public knowledge that hedge funds and market makers, through Payment for Order Flow (PFOF), are routing orders away from the lit market into various dark pools, including private dark pools such as Citadel Connect. As mentioned by SEC Chair Gary Gensler and noted in Petition 4-785, up to 90% of orders do not reach the lit exchange. This causes retail orders that are meant to go through to the lit market to be delayed indefinitely from reaching the lit market, which effectively suppresses the price movement from trending upwards based on price discovery. In addition to that, dark pools are meant to be used for large institutional orders and not for small retail orders. However, it is being used outside of its original design. The results of which favor hedge funds and market makers, financially benefiting them. All the while, retail investors like me, whom you, the SEC, swore to protect from unfairness in the market, are left to suffer, not from poor investing decisions, but from the unfairness of hedge funds and market makers, having abilities and resources not provided for everyone in this supposedly "fair" market. I am in support of this petition and strongly move that it be immediately implemented and enforced. Thank you, Emmanuel Ibus