Mar. 31, 2023
Dear SEC, Effective enforcement is crucial for the SEC's rules to have any impact. I urge the commission to increase fines significantly to deter bad behavior. Rather than just a cost of doing business, fines should be substantial enough to make broker-dealers lose their licenses if they break the law repeatedly. Personally, I would be willing to pay a slightly higher share price to avoid routing through wholesalers with a history of multiple charges by the US government or those who have flouted the law repeatedly like Citadel Securities. Commission payments would be a preferable alternative to routing through such wholesalers. I strongly support the harmonization of tick sizes across all exchanges to eliminate unfair advantages for some exchanges and prevent monopolies. This will foster competition and fairness in the markets. I am against the presence of rebates and other inducements, which are essentially payment for order flow under a different name. Rather than reducing access fees to zero, I would prefer them to be reasonable and transparent. I commend the commission for proposing a clear tick size regime that does not rely on vague language. Rules must be precise, unambiguous, and not open to interpretation to prevent needless litigation and protect taxpayer dollars. I welcome the inclusion of odd lot information in the SIP to empower individual investors to make better decisions about their orders. As odd lots represent the majority of trades in some stocks, excluding them from the NBBO would unfairly disadvantage most individual investors. I urge the commission to find a way to include odd lots proportionately in the NBBO calculation. -a concerned household investor