April 19, 2022
Hello,
The proposed rule change seems designed to obfuscate true price discovery and market conditions, allowing nefarious actors who are behaving in a questionable manner, if not out-right illegally, to avoid responsibility for their poor decision making.
The market should remain free and fair, it is not the job of regulators to pick winners and losers. If someone made a bad bet, they should have to pay the consequences. This is true for every-day retail investors such as myself, and should be true for large institutions as well.
I strenuously object to this proposed rule change which seems to allow the removal of collateral requirements for short positions. Our market is plagued by rampant short selling activity of dubious legality as it is there is no need to make it easier for these bad actors to continue leeching off of the market while providing no value to anyone other than themselves. The removal of all risk from shorting/lending activity for a select and privileged few firms incentivizes them to try and destroy value in the market. This is not the intended function of legitimate short selling.