October 18, 2021
Having the opinion of a single person able to affect the livelihood and investments of thousands of individuals is never a good idea. How does that person determine what is in 'the public interest'. Could someone less well off and less well connected have a different opinion? I think this all boils down to who will benefit from this? We already have circuit breakers in place. Which are clearly defined and observable. Why does this subjective measure to halt trading even need to be implemented? What is the rationale? (Just because other exchanges do it, is not a valid rationale. I want justification of why). Also I think you should consider if somebody had nefarious intent, how could this be used to damage investors? I can think of a myriad of ways. One person can be determined to be the fall guy, do something really unpopular, profit off it, and then resign with a nice retirement and probably another job lined up with the people they just helped profit off halting trading. Has this ever happened before in the SEC? (cough Jay Clayton cough). I strongly protest to this filing, as should all who want free and fair markets that aren't controlled by one man/woman's judgement of what is in the 'public interest'.