May. 10, 2022
I am an independent investor from outside the US. Right now, I have very little confidence in the US market. I am drawing down my US investments and will not be making future purchases of US securities unless I see some real, substantial progress. Ineffective ATS regulation is one of the major reasons for my stance. I'll keep this brief: allowing any transaction to be made via an ATS and not, in practice, printed to the official tape, is a license for institutions to manipulate prices with impunity. Individual investors cannot make informed decisions when much larger players have such tools at their disposal. Even proposed restriction drafts we previously saw fall disappointingly far from effective regulation, because fines alone are not a deterrent to such powerful organizations. To pretend otherwise is frankly insulting. The SEC should either kill ATS entirely or require all transactions reflected immediately in the lit markets, and back it up with criminal penalties. Anything short of that will result in a world where the sentiment that smart investors stay out of the US becomes more popular by the day. Best regards, GW