October 29, 2009
Hello,
I am an individual investor -- a nobody. I invest several million dollars of our hard earned money through a 35 years business career, and starting, buying and selling several companies..
I am appalled by what I read, not only about flash orders but also about Galleon paying big banks for (illegal) tips on their order books, and hedge funds' cozy relationship to Wall Street firms.
It appears that even the not-so-little guy like me has no chance, and the playing field is completely uneven: others profit from inside or advance knowledge that I don't have.
I strongly believe that this is a cancer that will eat at our way of life (money is a big part of our way of life, like it or not) and it is urgent and important that the SEC put an immediate end to these practices.
I find it no less than disgusting to see the big Wall Street firms profiting in the billions from these techniques, and then we should have to bail them out when their bets go awry. Wall Street firms have become so large, rich and powerful that they have half of Congress (if not 3/4) in their pockets. And just about all of the U.S. Treasury. So I'm not expecting reform to come from there... only through enforcement by the SEC.
I, for one, would prefer to see them fail one after the other than be cheated on every trade I make. If that's the case, I simply won't trade anymore. I don't gamble and I don't want to be someone else's fool either.
Thank you for looking and ENDING these awful and shameful practices. and don't stop there either. You need to defend the individual investor from these out-of-control monsters (I mean it).
As an immigrant, I made my fortune in the US, but I'm just about ready to go invest and spend it elsewhere.
Sincerely,
Laurent Mayer