September 25, 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 a week
4. On average, how often are trades made in your online account, whether by you or someone else?
Less often than once a 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):
Save and grow my money for medium- to long-term goals
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.)
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.)
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 : Less Than 12 Months
Options : 5+ Years
Mutual Funds : 5+ Years
ETFs : 5+ Years
Futures : None
Cryptocurrencies : 2-5 Years
Commodities : None
ClosedEnd Funds : None
Money Market Funds : None
Variable Insurance Products : None
Business Development Companies : Less Than 12 Months
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?
My understanding is that in January, and since then, market maker, short hedge funds, clearing houses, regulatory agencies (sec, dtcc, nscc, etc) and brokerages have worked in tandem to negatively impact retail investors, going so far as to shutting down the buying of certain securities, all in the interest of protecting the market makers, prime brokers, and clearing houses that have allowed for unprecedented market manipulation through shorting securities (in some cases in excess of the total float).
11. What else would you like us to know positive or negative - about your experience with online trading and investing?
Payment for order flow (PFOF) must be prohibited. In tandem, routing retail orders to retail wholesale market makers like Citadel and Virtu, routing retail orders to the dark pool, lending out shares for hedgefunds to short into the market without locates should all be illegal.
Proponents of PFOF assert that it allows market makers to provide retail with best execution offered via PFOF, but thats disingenuous when a vast majority of order flow in certain retail driven securities are routed to the dark pool, which prevents proper price discovery. For example, lets examine AMC. In 77 of the last 78 trading days, heavily shorted stocks like AMC had 50%+ of the daily volume executed in dark pools which do not impact the price of the lit change. When more than half of the volume is not reflected in the underlying price, how are we really getting the best execution, when there is no real price discovery happening? PFOF and share lending is nothing more than kickbacks for brokerages from Market makers + short hedge funds that make their money by front running retail orders and short selling stocks that have high retail ownership which ultimately hurts retail investors.
It seems highly counter intuitive for brokerages that relies on retail clients to engage in the practices that negatively impacts those very clients but then again, since PFOF has not been prohibited, entire business models have been built on these kickbacks in the form of PFOF and interest from lending shares, and this really needs to change.