Oct. 6, 2022
October 6, 2022 I have become deeply disheartened and gravely concerned over what I perceive to be a lack of organic market functioning. Note: I have two masters in business and 21 years at a Dow Jones Index company. This doesn't make me a market expert, but it does make me more informed than the average individual. We see the amount of retail orders on dark pools, the negligent manner of managing FTD's, the \"infinite liquidity\" (aka unmanaged share counts), HFT/nano-second trading (and many believe front running or trade-ahead), wash sales, spoofing, improper (and nonexistant) boundaries between MM's, HF's, and Brokers in some cases, ownership of media arms pumping both illogically negative and positive articles and so much more. All of this happens in broad daylight and penalties (when even applied) seem to be nothing more than a tax on profits. A paltry one at that. All of this has happened on your watch. As I see you are considering addressing transparency with clearing agencies, I BEG of you... take a moment to REALLY consider the disenfranchisement of retail traders in today's environment. I'm not sure you realize how damaged your reputation and the reputation of our entire market is. Retail is entirely distrusting of you and of large financial institutions. People are angry, and seeking opportunities to stop corruption. Forcing transparency with clearing agencies and true and proper accounting for shares exchanging hands would be a MAJOR step to restore trust. But without real penalties (including jail and/or loss of access to markets) none of this will matter. Retail is watching you. We don't believe in you. And we demand change.