October 18, 2021
As a shareholder of multiple positions, I strongly disagree with allowing any CEO the ability to halt trading of their stock for ANY reason, as they are more often than not shareholders as well. This would be direct Market Manipulation (legal or no) without input from shareholders. No one person should have this much power. If there is a Force Majeure situation or some other factor that would affect the Stock Market AS A WHOLE, the entire Market would be halted.
If a market maker or company is being audited, the SEC Investigative/Enforcement Division would have the authority to halt trading for a single stock in order to trace the path of shares for a specific timeframe, using singular electronic share identifiers. Stopping trading for a short time period and using a powerful computer (such as the retired systems in Oak Ridge, TN) should prevent extensive downtime to perform that analysis for each share being traded in light OR dark pools.
CEOs have ZERO business MANIPULATING the trading of shares FOR ANY REASON period. Too easy to take a payoff greater than their salary for nefarious reasons.
Thank you for your time.
Best regards.