Mar. 31, 2023
I am writing to support this rule, but with NO EXEMPTIONS for market makers! It is very clear that the practice of payment for order flow creates serious conflicts of interest and should be banned. Payment for order flow creates fundamental conflicts of interest that cannot be cured by disclosure. This Order Competition Rule attempts to level the playing field so that retail gets fair pricing. Yet the proposal has exemptions which allow orders to go to Internalizers first, and then to auction. By allowing this loophole for market makers/ wholesalers, you are essentially making this rule useless. The SEC must stop giving unfair advantages to large financial institutions. They already have a huge advantage merely due to their size, wealth, and power. And they have very clearly abused that power for decades, and have managed to skew wealth inequality to a nearly unsustainable level. They are inexplicably trusted to "self-regulate" (via the DTCC), and the data provided to governmental regulators is both self-reported and often incomplete. The rules are skewed in their favor, and when they do not follow the rules the fines are ludicrously negligible, and in no way a deterrent to the way they operate. Therefore it is time for the SEC and the US Congress to start protecting THE PEOPLE. You have prioritized Wall Street over Main Street for as long as I have been alive, and look where it has led us. (I've lived through multiple financial crises since the 1980's and we are very obviously on the precipice of yet another. Had the SEC and Congress been doing their jobs properly the past 25 years and protected Main Street, as they were hired or elected to do, we would not find ourselves in the position we are currently in today.) I am therefore calling for this rule to be passed WITH NO EXEMPTIONS. Payment for Order Flow has been proven to be harmful to retail investors. I am also calling for true and actual oversight with very (VERY!!) harsh consequences for when laws and rules are broken. Our current financial system is currently designed to be beneficial to large financial institutions at the expense of retail investors. And until you fix that, the people that you have been charged to protect will continue to suffer. Sincerely, A very concerned individual investor