Mar. 12, 2023
To whom it may concern, Our current market structure is pathetically atrocious to all who are paying attention. Having an entity with a monopoly on order flow through payment is the opposite of a free market and ripe for corruption, as we’re currently seeing. Auctions are needed to promote competition in the market, and to end the current system of trading fractions of pennies to ensure the house always wins.15 U.S.C. 78k-1 (“section 11A”) states that "It is in the public interest and appropriate for the protection of investors and the maintenance of fair and orderly markets to assure ... fair competition among brokers and dealers, among exchange markets, and between exchange markets and markets other than exchange markets." This casino structure of the current stock market is dystopian and not capitalistic, it is corporatism. Monopolies are bad, and there is clear monopolistic behavior here. The Commission notes that 90% of marketable orders of individual investors in NMS stocks to a small group of six off-exchange dealers, and 66% is captured by just two firms. Those figures will be even higher for specific stocks. This oligarchy does not act in anyone’s best interest, not the country, not the citizens, only their own bottom line. Competition is needed direly. Stand up SEC. -- Henry T. McGoldrick