February 21, 2022
I support this proposal.
As a retail investor, it is hard to fathom why such a change hasn't already happened. With the ever-increasing speed and quality of technology in our modern day economy, the speed at which money can be spent, borrowed, and traded is faster than ever. In what should be a free and competitive market, the average retail investor is at a severe disadvantage due to the privileges of market makers and tools at their disposal (such as dark pools, high frequency trading, and long settlement periods that give them the time needed to use loopholes to avoid what should be necessary). These \"strategies\" that are use, on top of intentionally misreporting information in all categories, create an economic environment of cheating and stealing from the rest of the rule-following participants of the market. By allowing such actions to continue, and not enforcing true punishment for said actions, it has ruined the integrity of the stock market, tainted the definition of natural price discovery, and turned the stock market into an artificial playing field that has and will continue to damage the market until genuine change is made and enforced. By shortening the securities transaction settlement cycle, this may help to increase transparency in the market and prevent the loopholes allowed by long settlement periods.