Aug. 16, 2022
August 16, 2022 Dear SEC, I explicitly support transaction-by-transaction reporting to eliminate opacity within our markets around short selling. Transparency is a minimum threshold for \"free and fair\" markets, and while this proposal disrupts status quo among large financial behemoths it represents an opportunity to move the needle in the direction of more fair and free markets. I support the proposed 15-minute reporting requirement for short sales, and believe the time, capital and energy costs required to implement this change is well worth fraud prevention and market integrity that it would enable. True price discovery is harmed by a small group of well-capitalized funds that box in companies' growth opportunities based on their own interests (they call these self-interests \"theses\"). Victimized organizations need better tools to assist them in situations where they are being targeted maliciously, and watering down ANY of the SEC recommendations in this proposal hurts fair price discovery in our markets. Retail investors are punished by a system that allows financial institutions to prey on their portfolios in the dark, with less capital, with less information available to them, slower systems, and rules bent against them by financial institutions claiming to \"speak on behalf of retail investors\". A very desirable and new phenomenon is that the investing public has become an investing watchdog for our markets over the past several years, with increased visibility around high-profile activity in the financial world as a result. The markets will benefit massively from this proposal, as it will also equip and empower those watchdogs to hold market participants accountable (much needed). I appreciate your time and energy reading this comment, and look forward to seeing this proposal pass in the originally proposed form. Regards, Jason Ott, Ph.D.