Mar. 20, 2023
I am an individual investor from Europe who has a substantial amount of money invested in the United States. Citadel and Viru utilise a "price improvement scheme" to attract order flow by claiming to offer the best trades in the market. While their performance statistics seem to support this, they often do not provide the best price available, but rather a slightly better price. This allows them to gain order flow without needing to pay for order flow. There is a suspicion that they selectively apply the price improvement to benefit themselves. The new rules aim to enforce legal requirements that should have already been in place and mandate more transparent disclosure of their practices to prevent deception. This will help to expose any unethical behaviour and prevent them from taking advantage of the market. In the same manner brokers owe their customers a duty of Best Execution derived from common law agency principles and fiduciary obligations, but it needs to become a rule that the SEC can enforce.I think some broker-dealers should lose their licenses instead of receiving fines that amount to nothing more than a cost of doing business - a cost that is often outweighed by the ill-gotten gains obtained through “honest mistakes”. Please enforce this rule as soon as possible. I fully support it. Thank you, Boris Alukic