January 1, 2016
I add my support for the approval of the IEX application for Registration as a National Securities Exchange to many others already provided to you.
My belief is that the incredible pace of technology adoption has been a double edged sword for both the retail investor and for institutional investors alike. While we have seen transactional costs decline, creative new participants, the High Frequency Trading firms, have infiltrated our markets like a cancer.
These firms are not buyers of equities—they are buyers of information from the public and private exchanges who sell that information before it is publicly available (through low latency methods and special order types). Therefore, I see only a public hazard coming from having to depend entirely on exchanges that cater to these HFT firms.
I like the IEX approach of providing an alternative where the HFT has no advantage over the retail and typical institutional investor, and is unable to skim profits from advanced knowledge of pricing information.
I encourage you to approve the application in order to help restore public confidence in our markets.
Sincerely,
Stephen W Delaney