Aug. 27, 2021
1. Do you have one or more online trading or investment accounts? Yes, I have one or more accounts that I access both online using a computer and using a mobile app. 2. If your response to Question 1 is Yes, do you think you would trade or invest if you could not do so online using a computer or using a mobile app? No 3. On average, how often do you access your online account? Once to a few times per month 4. On average, how often are trades made in your online account, whether by you or someone else? Once to a few times per month. 5. If you access your account online, did you have the account first, and only began to access it electronically later? Or did you open the account with the idea that you would access it electronically immediately? I downloaded an app or visited a website first, and then opened up an account with the company 6. My goals for trading or investing in my online account are (check all that apply): Keep the amount of money I have, while keeping up with inflation Save and grow my money for short-term goals (in the next year or two) Save and grow my money for medium- to long-term goals Have fun 7. What would you like us to know about your experience with the features of your online trading or investment platform? (Examples of features are: social networking tools games, streaks, or contests with prizes points, badges, and leaderboards notifications celebrations for trading visual cues, like changing colors ideas presented at order placement or other curated lists or features subscription and membership tiers or chatbots.) Social networking is fine as it engages users to understand not only the sentiment, but also get a peek into their thesis for us to study and decide whether it's worthy if investigating more over any given security or just scrap the idea of investing time over it. Things such as games, streaks, contests, points, badges and any other things related and not limited to gamification that can easily be used to exploit retail investment decisions. 8. If you were trading or investing prior to using an online account, how have your investing and trading behaviors changed since you started using your online account? (For example, the amount of money you have invested, your interest in learning about investing and saving for retirement, the amount of time you have spent trading, your knowledge of financial products, the number of trades you have made, the amount of money you have made in trading, your knowledge of the markets, the number of different types of financial products you have traded, or your use of margin.) n/a 9. How much experience do you have trading or investing in the following products (None, 12 months, 1-2 years, 2-5 years, 5+ years): Stocks : 5+ Years Bonds : None Options : None Mutual Funds : None ETFs : 5+ Years Futures : 5+ Years Cryptocurrencies : 5+ Years Commodities : 5+ Years ClosedEnd Funds : None Money Market Funds : Less Than 12 Months Variable Insurance Products : 1-2 Years Business Development Companies : 2-5 Years Unit Investment Trusts : None 10. What is your understanding, if any, of the circumstances under which trading or investing in your account can be suspended or restricted? Promoting pump and dumps, avoiding taxation, and very obvious things of that nature. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck... 11. What else would you like us to know positive or negative - about your experience with online trading and investing? I think that online activity promoting investment opportunities is a great thing but is under extreme abuse by market makers and possibility of collusion with payment for order flow. Thankfully with the help of online forums with open discussions, it's easier for the general public to truly understand what's going on rather than depending on social media. This in fact brings to another very interesting topic which lately has had questionable actions by main stream media, in particular CNBC. Just considering the fact that they deleted an interview they had with Gary Gensler not too long ago really says a lot about their posture. Putting Jim Cramer's recommendations alongside stock activity, you can infer that not only are they promoting pump and dumps, but are also compromised from putting out into the public what's really going on behind the curtains leaving us with a trifecta where media is controlled, market makers and brokers selling our data while not exercising best trad ing practices, abuse of off-exchange platforms like FINRA's ADF, Citadel Connect, etc and then Vlad, CEO of Robinhood, committing perjury about talks with the clearing houses, it's very simple to infer that we are indeed in a very suspicious environment that could be interpreted as flat out corruption. This isn't even considering the lack of efforts from the CFTC when it comes to actually regulating their part of the equation.