September 1, 2011
Dear SEC,
As a retired investor dependent on dividends for our income, I am writing to say that all the press and hoopla about investigating mortgage reits strikes me as strange in the face of massive affects on the market of high frequency trading, and dark pools about which I can find not a damn thing.
Mortgage reits are one of the few stocks a small investor like me can go into with some reasonable stability and good return in these times, and the SEC action has walloped my portfolio.
Any small investor willing to do appropriate due diligence understands these are not mutual funds, and that these do not trade like mutual funds. They do not hold stocks of any other companies, and are not any form of CEF, open ended fund, or ETF. They offer conference calls and speak at investor forums. You can read about them in detail on line or call their IR folks and get questions answered. They simply leverage their capital and buy mortgage bonds, and manage that portfolio with normal considerations of duration and hedging. . They are well covered by probably and dozen analysts, have not caused and bubbles, flash crashes, or needed billions in bail outs.
I am a retired chiropractor, can read, and I understand mortgage reits well enough to invest with success.
As a little guy what scares me is the big guys, the ones with multi-million dollar flash trading systems, and billions to move markets back and forth.
May I respectfully ask that the SEC not waste time and resources investigating the reit structure which has been around since the 60's, and focus on the high frequency trading, which NEEDS TRANSPARENCY.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment,
Michael Joyce