Mar. 18, 2023
March 18, 2023
Dear SEC,
I am writing to express my full support for the proposed SEC Order Competition Rule. As a household investor, I believe that the current market is not fair, and this proposed rule is an important step in the right direction.
I deeply appreciate and support any efforts to reduce the speed games that damage the integrity, credibility, and functioning of American markets. It is essential to reduce inducements and to reduce the 'farming' of individuals' orders for rebate money. Additionally, a broker routing orders first to a wholesaler, who then passes them to the auction, seems unnecessarily complex and grants the wholesaler an unfair information advantage against other market participants. I believe the Commission should address this issue 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.
Furthermore, I support any rule that brings more transparency to dark markets. The current rule that forces dark pools (Alternative Trading Systems) to provide quotes and trades to consolidated market data if they wish to operate as an auction is a step in the right direction. The investing public should have easy access to what is happening within the markets.
In addition, I believe that fair competition is incredibly important, and it's good to see the SEC prioritizing true competition. Monopolies are bad, and there is clear monopolistic behavior in the off-exchange systems that currently dominate. The state of American markets is clearly anti-competitive, and that needs to change.
I strongly agree that wholesalers are bad, and I would gladly pay more per share to avoid being routed through a wholesaler that has been charged over 70 times by the United States government. I believe that wholesalers have very clear conflicts of interest, exercise extreme influence on other market participants, and are taking billions from individuals and institutions by simply existing to get their cut of a transaction that would otherwise occur. I would prefer that money goes to pension funds instead of Wall St. billionaires.
Therefore, I urge the SEC to implement the proposed SEC Order Competition Rule as soon as possible. Every rule the SEC passes is only as good as the enforcement that backs it. I would like to see higher fines that actually serve as a significant deterrent. Some broker-dealers should lose their licenses instead of receiving fines that amount to nothing more than a cost of doing business, which is often outweighed by the ill-gotten gains obtained through \"honest mistakes.\" The data clearly demonstrate that wholesalers are taking billions from individuals and institutions and calling it \"superior performance.\" Removing the profiteering middlemen from the market will improve prices for both individuals and institutions, and save billions of dollars each year.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Caleb C.