Apr. 20, 2022
Dear SEC, As I've recently started to invest about 1 year ago, it has become abundantly clear that your actions are not to protect retail, but to protect Hedge Funds. How can anyone expect the average everyday person to invest in the stock market when it's clear the rules are against them? The complexity of rules that govern our fair market are not created by retail, but rather by Wall Street, big banks, and Hedge funds, and they use the complexity to their advantage. This rule is just another example of leveraging complexity to fleece over retail by keeping them ignorant. Why protect bad actors against FTD? This new propsed rule leads to the avoidance of market price discovery through onward lending and appears is essentially the entire purpose of this rule. It removes that infinite risk of naked shorting entirely, and in so doing the deterrent of engaging in what is supposed to be very risky business. It's all upside for these criminals, and all downside for those on the wrong side of their shorts. I understand the need for dark pools in the current market (Index transfers, etc.) but this new rule feels like another attempt at protecting the Wall Street bad actors while harming the retail investor. As seen with many of the meme stocks, fundamental price discovery doesn't apply in the slightest and the pricing feels highly manipulated and borderline criminal. Please help retail achieve a fair and free market, otherwise I see the continued pillaging of everyday investors continuing. Help make the world a better place, Mark Schneider