January 29, 2020
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am submitting this comment on behalf of a group of friends/investors that meet regularly to discuss and debate investment opportunities in Madison Wisconsin. We are a small group, our active members invest between 100k and 2m in stocks/bonds/investment products traded on US public exchanges, in retail and retirement accounts.
We unanimously agree that this proposal in S7-23-19 is AGAINST the interest of retail investors. More information is always beneficial to any stakeholder, particularly an investor. The benefit of this information needs to be weighed of course against the cost required to acquire/provide it, but it seems to us that independent analysis of this (including that provided by CERES) indicates that the cost is relatively low, and the requests are predomininantly targeted at large/mega-cap firms. This proposal increases the perception that the market rules are stacked in favor of the very rich and against the average investor. We request that the right to submit/resubmit petitions remain at the reasonable requirements they are currently.
Regards,
Stephen Lewis