Aug. 16, 2022
August 16, 2022 Hello, Before I list out the things that I advocate for in this comment, I would like to draw attention to the fact that there are many hedge funds/ large institutional investors that are commenting as though they are looking out for the retail investor but in reality are doing the opposite. I hope you folks at the SEC are able to see through this false interest in protecting the retail investor. Having said that, here are the things that I would like the SEC to respectfully consider and address: 1. 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. 2. I strongly support the 15-minute reporting requirement, because the cost and effort are justified to prevent fraud and prevent hiding in loopholes. Additionally, the larger institutions that want to water it down to T+1 are only doing so to benefit themselves. We should leverage superior technology for preventing fraud. 3. I strongly believe victimized companies need a greater ability to defend themselves against predators, and \"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 and frankly un-capitalistic/ un-American. 4. The small retail investor (like myself) that cant hire fancy lawyers also need your protection. And a small step towards that direction is increased transparency that retail will benefit from. Smaller retail investors have a much better idea of the risks of their decisions and transactions if they can see who has targeted which companies. If funds are allowed to \"short in the dark\", retail investors remain dangerously unaware of the risks they take on when purchasing securities. 5. I also want to draw attention to the new and very desirable phenomenon of the public serving as first-line watchdogs in monitoring short selling data for securities fraud, strengthening the SEC and better enabling it to fulfill its mandate, at no cost. I know my comment isnt as expertly written like Citadel's or other hedge fund's comments, but I hope the SEC takes stronger steps to protect the smaller investors who are continuously operating at a significant disadvantage due to lack of transparency. Thanks a ton for taking the time to read my comment. visal mangipudi