October 16, 2021
As a retail investor, I strongly oppose this filing.
It is written, plain as day, that this would stop trading on the platforms that retail investors have access to, while allowing trading on the platforms that only brokers and market makers have access to, where they can influence the price without interference from retail.
Any argument that brokers would not abuse this privaledge was disproven in January 2021 when brokers purposely tampered with retail's ability to buy certain securities, and then lied about it under oath.
Market makers, likewise, have a long history of getting slap-on-the-wrist fines, which are almost non-existent relative to their gains, for purposely and repeatedly breaking the law and mistreating retail investors.
There is no incentive for them to NOT abuse this rule, and every incentive for them to cheat retail.
What's more, this does not force any sort of secrecy or discretion when using the ability to arbitrarily halt trading, incentivising the leaking and sale of this information to dishonest market makers and other Wall Street players.
In short, this has absolutely zero benefit for retail investors, while encouraging fraud and insider trading.
It's an obvious ploy to pull what little power is given to retail and give it to those who already otherwise have complete control over the markets.
This is why the world is losing or has already lost faith in the US markets.
You're supposed to fix the system and protect retail. Don't make an already-rigged system worse.