Oct. 08, 2022
October 8, 2022
October 8th, 2022
Vanessa Countryman, Secretary Securities and Exchange Commission 100 F Street, NE
Washington, DC 20549-0609
Re: Reporting of Securities Loans (File No. S7-18-21)
Dear Secretary Countryman:
I am writing in strong support of rule 10c-1, Reporting of Securities Loans. Anyone arguing against additional transparency in the market, is clearly benefiting from their ability to deceive that market. Information is a valuable resource, and when institutions are allowed access to data that retail investors are not, they are given an unfair market advantage.
This is why the markets need transaction-to-transaction reporting, where every detail is made readily available to the public.
This will level the playing field for the average working American, something Wall Street desperately needs during this era of disturbing wealth consolidation. I heavily support the 15 minute reporting intervals brought forward with this filing, as I believe it is a step in the right direction to achieving transparent markets that allow small unsophisticated investors to operate on a more level playing field with large institutions. This is why the market exists.
This is why America exists. It is not to line the pockets of the ultra wealthy, it is to give hard working American families access to the profits of those American corporations that they choose to support. The markets should exist as an avenue for enriching everyday Americans. Currently our markets function better as a porthole into the pocket books of those same Americans, for hedge funds and market makers to loot their hard earned money from under their noses. Short sellers are not investors, and in fact, they are exactly the opposite of investors.
The SEC should prioritize protecting actual investors first and foremost, as they are what create the basis for a healthy and functioning market. It concerns me that the SEC has clearly shown their intent to support the short sellers is greater than their intent to support the actual investors that they leach off of. Short sellers' ability to operate in the dark is exactly why they consistently find themselves in heavily overleveraged positions.
Greater reporting transparency will reel-in the enticement to make these absurd bets and should cool the shorting market, something American companies could certainly use during a recession. As a corporate executive myself, I am currently reconsidering my original business plan, in which my ultimate end goal was an IPO on a US stock exchange.
Now that I know how short sellers can abuse companies, even successful ones, driving them into bankruptcy, I no longer wish to bring my company onto an American exchange. This should concern the SEC to an extreme degree. Average people are losing faith in your ability to regulate the American markets, and those people will be taking their companies and their money elsewhere the second they have an opportunity to do so, if you do not get a handle on this abusive short selling.
There are already likely massive systemic risks looming underneath the carpet of market transparency, and unfortunately for you, simply keeping it under the rug will not make the problem go away. In fact, the problem is likely growing every day at an exponential rate, and may even already be beyond the point of fixable. I am struggling to find words that carry the correct weight for what I am about to say: Peoples LIVES are in your hands. If this gets out of control and your ignorance of this issue pushes millions more across the poverty line and into starvation, then it could not be denied that their blood will be on your hands. I hope you can appreciate what I am saying here. Adding transparency to our markets is simply the most effective way to drive out the controversial activities taking place inside of it. This is why I urge you to immediately approve and adopt rule 10c-1.
Sincerely,
A Concerned investor