July 16, 2020
Vote NO on this proposition
This proposal is clearly aimed at crippling the rise of at-home traders. Using the most recent quarter as an example, the number of funds that would have to disclose their holdings to the public would fall from 5,283 to 549. Almost 90% of all filers. $2.3 trillion in investment holdings would no longer be disclosed to the public stripping the people of transparency and valuable insight. Many investors choose to avoid over-owned stock due to the higher risk. This proposal would hamstring investors and their ability to be aware of, and to mitigate, their risk.
This proposal would not only harm at-home investors, it would also negatively affect publicly traded companies by reducing their knowledge of who their shareholders are.
Congress first adopted Section 13(f) in order to stimulate a higher degree of confidence among all investors in the integrity of the US securities markets. Taking away the majority of this data flies in the face of the original intent of Section 13(f). Transparency gives investors confidence in US markets and this proposal would greatly reduce this confidence.
If anything, you at the SEC should be pushing for increased transparency and disclosures not rolling back existing rules. This proposal holds no benefit for anyone other than the already bloated institutions and only serves to hurt small investors and hinder publicly traded businesses.
Less transparency is never the answer. The markets must be kept fair, transparent, and accessible.