February 7, 2022
Hi. I may not be the most knowledgeable retail investor, but what Ive learned within the past year about the integrity of the stock market has me deeply worried (as an American citizen) and extremely upset.
There seems to be a lot of can-kicking, especially since the events in 2007 and not actually fixing the problems. I believe that derivatives (like credit default swaps) need to be more transparent and tightly regulated. I believe that those with money and power can and do abuse the derivatives market and so they can make even more money.
In light of recent events with GameStop and Robinhood turning off the buy button (potentially colluding with Citadel among others), I think there needs to be greater transparency into how this clear manipulation was allowed to happen.
In addition, the fact that 90-95% of current market orders dont go through lit exchanges has me concerned that this opens up the possibility to naked short selling (like how GameStops short interest was at 141%) and allows bad actors easier access to behave in these nefarious activities without consequence.
I think Payment for Order Flow should be altogether banned (following in the footsteps of the UK and Australia) as it opens up my orders to be behind market makers so the market makers orders can be front-run and make money before my order is executed. I think that dark pools should be shut down or more transparent in their reporting.
I support the tighter regulation for suspected manipulation in the stock market and all of the agencys proposals to improve the plumbing and protect the individual investor, like myself. Thank you