December 21, 2015
Dear Sir/Madam,
I support the application made by IEX to become an exchange. I understand that IEX, as proposed, reduces the disadvantage to smaller investors from predatory HFT trading strategies (1). Instead, market participants will trade on IEX on equal terms (2). I agree with my former employer, Blackrock, that regulators need to do more to rein in predatory HFT practices, and to ensure that dark pools 'provide more information such as how they prioritize orders and fees, in addition to volume' (3).
Best regards,
Dr Neil Lancastle
(1) http://www.blackrock.com/corporate/en-us/literature/whitepaper/viewpoint-us-equity-market-structure-april-2014.pdf
(2) https://www.sec.gov/comments/10-222/10222-2.pdf
(3) http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-04-10/blackrock-urges-curbs-on-predatory-high-frequency-trading