January 6, 2022
I would mostly like to submit a comment saying \"ditto\" to everything commented by Susanne Trimbath, PhD. It is obvious that the current reporting around security loans are woefully inadequate. The whole system of self-reporting and self-regulation is abhorrent. Retail should never be kept in the dark about whether their own shares are being lent, nor should it be possible to have shares be on loan indefinitely. The abuses inherent in the current system are a massive risk to the entire world economy. The ability of wealth hoarders to bankrupt promising companies while propping up their chosen few is absolutely destroying the fabric of society by demolishing competition, fostering predatory behavior, drastically reducing wealth equality, and providing a framework for corruption to thrive.
There absolutely IS naked shorting taking place daily in this environment because the reporting mechanisms aren't in place to reveal it, the fines are too pathetic to stop it, and the SEC is about 7 years late to do anything about it when they find it.
Additionally, nobody should ever see 10 different websites showing different shares outstanding, short interest, ownership numbers, etc. Nor data showing a company is 130% owned by institutions, or trading multiples of the float in a given day, or any other such nonsense. We see massive glitches in these reporting processes daily.
It's obvious that the whole market is rigged at this point. Each and every trade should be tracked, and violators need to be dealt with swiftly. This system is fundamentally broken when someone can hide the entire short interest of a company in variance swaps, or shift financial burdens offshore to get them off their books. Fix this ASAP