Subject: S7-08-22: WebForm Comments from Spencer Headley
From: Spencer Headley
Affiliation:

Oct. 31, 2022


October 31, 2022

 Hello,

During the pandemic, I worked as an epidemiological specialist for the Hawaii State Department of Health. Although I resigned last year after vaccines were made readily available, the lessons I learned at that position, during that time, were lifelong. Chief among them is the importance of transparency from governing institutions. We live in a time when the truth of specific matters being accepted as such could not be more important, and yet is nullification with falsehoods for its own purposes is more prevalent than ever. In finance, investors, from retail to institutional, have a right to know the position of an equity they are investing in, without smoke and mirrors hiding the true stake. Without ensuring such transparency, the SEC and any other institutional actor is actively granting malicious actors to manipulate an equity for their own benefit. I have seen first hand what fills the vacuum of a social environment with high stakes yet scant reliable information. It bends towards
  humanities ugliest impulses. As the agency in charge of regulating our markets, you have a responsibility to stand firm in creating a transparent environment where people invest tens of billions of dollars on a daily basis. Do not shirk your responsibility to financial transparency, which undoubtedly fosters manipulation and corruption at the expense of honest investment.