February 4, 2016
Sirs, after reading Michael Lewis' book Flash Boys, I am deeply saddened that the various American stock exchanges are allowing HFT firms to engage in behavior that if I engaged in as a FINRA licensed stockbroker, I would be fined, censured and possibly lose my licenses. I am specifically referring to front running, but their other activities essentially brand them as thieves in my opinion. I have been involved in the financial services industry since 1979 and am embarrassed at the activities that are being allowed to be used by the HFT firms. I fully support the application of IEX group to become an exchange as I believe that are attempting to bring fairness to the industry.