Aug. 16, 2022
August 16, 2022 I am a foreign investor from Europe. I enjoy engaging in the US market to capitalize on its potential and strong growth. However, short-selling is worrysome, especially in conjunction with Payment For Order Flow, which is legal in the US. This is causing me to reconsider my investments in the US markets. I believe this rule will benefit investors. I strongly support transaction-by-transaction reporting because it eliminates the ability to \"hide within the aggregate\" transparency means transparency and aggregates are not transparent. A shorter reporting requirement of 15-minutes as proposed is also very good, and will bring down the level of fraud in the system. This will also help victimized companies that need a greater ability to defend themselves against predators, and that \"short selling in the dark\" harms true competition and price discovery. The idea that a small number of short-selling funds \"know best\" and can hammer unsuspecting companies in the dark is shameful. Securities lending activity can hide massively destructive chains of obligation that can even be a threat to national security, and so transparency in this area is more important than it has ever been. I believe these things will improve the experience and effectivness of individual investors, and all effort to increase transparency should be applauded. Any investor deserves the information needed to judge if an investment is sound or not additional information about short-sales, shorter reporting windows and greater transparency will greatly benefit us all.