Mar. 19, 2023
Dear Securities and Exchange Commission, As a household investor, I am writing to express my support for the proposed Regulation Best Execution rule in the stock market. I believe that this rule will make the stock market fairer and more transparent by promoting competition among different places where stocks are bought and sold. I support the proposed rule because it seeks to ensure that both trading platforms have the same rules about how much the stock price can change at a time, so that neither platform has an unfair advantage over the other. This will help to promote a level playing field for all investors. Furthermore, the rule wants to make sure that brokers and wholesalers are being honest and transparent when they help people buy and sell stocks. This will prevent brokers from sending their customers to a particular platform, even if it's not the best place to get the best price. In addition, the rule wants to ensure that Alternative Trading Systems (ATS) are following the same rules as regular exchanges. This would make the market more fair and efficient for everyone involved. As a household investor, I believe that the proposed changes to ATS rules promote better alignment with regulatory frameworks for exchanges and would be beneficial for individual investors. I also believe that ATS should submit detailed disclosures about their operations, including how they manage conflicts of interest, how they operate their order routing practices, and how they handle customer orders. This would make it easier for investors to understand how ATS operate and how their orders are executed. I also support the proposal that ATS should establish and enforce written policies and procedures to prevent fraudulent and manipulative practices. This would help to protect individual investors from abusive practices in the ATS market. Moreover, I believe that ATS should provide detailed information about the operation of their systems to the SEC, including data on the execution of orders, order routing practices, and information about the use of dark pools. This would improve the SEC's ability to oversee ATS and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. I support the proposal to implement a variable minimum pricing increment model for both quoting and trading of NMS stocks, which would promote fair pricing across trading venues, ultimately benefiting investors. Lastly, I believe that the SEC should prioritize creating a competitive market structure that benefits investors and encourages transparency. Competition in the marketplace is necessary to regulate markets better and barriers to competition, such as the conflicted nature of PFOF, should be removed. Estimated savings for retail investors range from $1.12 billion to $2.35 billion, primarily through increased competition to supply liquidity to marketable orders. Thank you for considering my views on this issue. Sincerely, Dylan McGrah