Mar. 31, 2023
This is my position on the following issues, and I as an individual retail investor strongly encourage the SEC to take action in support of these positions. Citadel shouldn't be the first to receive orders in the stock market. This makes them a complete monopoly and they have complete control over the markets. This isn't freedom. Instead, make orders go to a public auction where all investors, including pension funds, have an equal opportunity to fill my order. They did away with payment for order flow in the UK because it fosters huge conflicts of interests. Do that here. Brokers who don't use PFOF route orders in a different way and therefore see better execution quality. Don't let Citadel and others take advantage of me through PFOF. Apparently Robinhood doesn't provide better price improvement relative to exchanges despite PFOF being 70% of its profits. Are we going to let them keep skimming pennies off my trades just so they can use my own money against me? After learning everything I have over the past few years regarding the stock markets, I'll just buy my stocks with ComputerShare. I refuse to trade through any of these corrupt brokers anymore. I would even pay more to not have to deal with them. But right now us retail investors not using PFOF services are still getting better prices than those who are using it, which violates FINRA's best execution regulations. FINRA is evaluating the impact of commissions not charging on member firms' order routing and decisions. I want those findings. If a human reads this, I'd be incredibly impressed if you emailed me back with those numbers. Why does TD Ameritrade's order routing decision allow them to get first look at orders? Apparently this allows them to route to firms that net themselves billions in profits, that again, are used to short the companies that I invest in. How corrupt do you have to be to allow something called "Dark Pools" to exist? Make the SEC address how unfair the information advantage of wholesalers by having brokers route to auctions first and specify where the order should go if the auction doesn't work out. Honestly I want the auction and any retail trader should too. Who do these markets exist for anyways? American markets are anti competition. It's absolutely racketeering. Fix this. Wholesalers can bully other market participants into playing along their strategies. I can't. How is this fair? Punish wholesalers for taking billions from individuals and institutions and calling it "superior performance" while lying about how good their services are. In the inevitable litigation they will say a ton of things that simply aren't true, and they should be arrested for lying under oath. They've already lied about so much, how can we take anything they say as credible? Remove middle men in the stock market and remove their mark ups. It'll make all investing cheaper. The markets will still exist, as will the capital within it, even if they aren't able to pillage retail investors anymore. Support the rules bringing transparency to dark pools. Investigate conflicts of interest among market participants and ensure that all participants can objectively see these rules. These companies have gotten so absurdly rich off of market manipulation that the fines they face are simply the cost of doing business. Up the fines and make the regulations more punitive (ie jail time). Revoke trading licenses for dealers who intentionally break the rules for their own institutions' profits. If a human is reading this, sincerely, thank you for taking the time to do so. Michael Scott Madison, WI