Oct. 17, 2022
To whom it may concern, As a retail investor, I implore radical and positive changes to bring transparency to the cesspool that the US markets have devolved into. Short selling has become more than just a functional balancing tactic within the markets your regulate and has morphed into a criminal activity with regulation so loose that nefarious actors and especially influential market makers can bend trades and order flow to their will for the purpose of maximising gains and limiting their losses. Once upon a time, the market was based on supply and demand. Now, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I, and countless other retail investors will determine our future participation within your markets based on the decisions coming from this filing. We are tired of murky regulation, naked short selling and countless other practices, many of which are illegal but come with tiny fines that just act as costs of business. We are tired of front running, we are tired of the games, and we are tired of PFOF which absolutely is not retail’s friend. I, and I speak for most other retail investors who are familiar with the con of PFOF would much prefer to pay broker fees on trades than be faced with the implications of “free” trades facilitated by PFOF. As a retail investor, I’m also disgusted at the gross misuse of American tax payers money into smear campaigns designed to humiliate and devalue retail participants. You know what I’m talking about – the $500,000 advertisement you produced. For the record, retail money is actually the smartest in the room. Why? Because we’re not leveraged to the hilt, we need to be right more often, and we do considerable research in our trades. The fact you would single us out when there are bankers, market makers and naked short sellers running amok out there utilising money which isn’t their own – it’s my parent’s, it’s your grandparent’s, our collective family’s pensions and so on is an absolute disgrace. These greedy, dangerous operators at the end of the day, will go home on their 7 figure salaries and not lose a wink of sleep for the pain they cause and it’ll ultimately be because the SEC will not hold them accountable. When will enough be enough? It’s time America got back to meaning something, as right not it’s on shaky ground and your organisation is sure doing its part to harm the integrity of your nation further. I beg that if you’re a patriot, if you care about your citizens; the time for taking bribes, doling out fines that pale in comparison to the profits made from said crimes be done. No more. Please do your part – we are tired of the abuse and shield of invincibility these criminals seem to have. You have the hammer. Do the right thing and drop it where justice demands. Thank you for your time.