December 15, 2010
This is a comment letter to the SEC on the Concept Release of Equity Market Structure, particularly focusing on whether professional traders harm the interests of long-term investors.
The SEC has expressed concerns about proprietary traders negatively impact the interests of long-term investors. I think it is an unnecessary concern. Rather, professional traders provide liquidity to market participants.
High frequency trading, co-location are exactly what enable professional traders to provide liquidity to long-term investors during the most stressful market conditions. In addition, short-term traders provided significant benefits in the way of narrower spreads and better pricing. Many prop trading firms trade on the small price discrepancies of securities, and make overall pricing more efficient for long-term investors.
Overall, I think there is no need for SEC to consider a regulatory initiative target proprietary trading firms.