Mar. 12, 2023
In regard to the order competition rule; File No. S7-31-22, Release No.34-96495 I believe that there are very important aspects that will protect and help retail/individual investors. That said my thoughts are as such; If passed it must be enforced, the SEC's enforcement is what makes the difference not just a ruling being passed. The auction ruling is better for individual investors than the option to route orders first to a wholesaler who then passes it to an auction. The latter allows for the national best officer bid to be of lesser value than if the order went to auction right away. The Commission should address this unfair information advantage by having brokers first route to the auction and specify where the order should go if the auction is unsuccessful. That way the entire market has equal knowledge. As is right now there is a clear monopolization from Citadel of routing individual orders to satisfy their business needs instead of the public’s needs. Their use of ATSs has allowed them to provide quotes and trades to consolidated market data if they wish to operate as an auction. They appear to be internalizing this order flow instead of letting it go to the live exchange, NYSE for example. Lastly I want to make it clear that the current rules would allow for orders to go to Citadel first, I do NOT want this. I want orders to go to auction first with each Market maker/participent making bids on the order for best execution. Competition is great for the stock market, this economy and this country. I wholly approve the rest of the ruling to be approved and believe it is best for this country. Thank you, Ago Zilic