March 24, 2021
I have been investing in US stock markets for about 40 years. I remember the dot.com bubble. I remember the housing bubble. I lost 80% of my investment value in 2008-2009 because of destructive practices that never should have been allowed to happen. And now, once again, I see the same types of practices playing out again. I sincerely hope that the rules and rule changes being implemented for risk management such as this 002, the accompanying 801, and all others associated will be used extremely proactively by the DTCC and NSCC. The gross manipulation that we have been witnessing with such practices as short selling is nothing less than disgusting. It is blatantly obvious and unfair to individual investors. I speak often with friends and family about investing, and I have never felt such a lack of confidence in our markets because nothing is ever done to prevent predatory hedge funds and the like from doing things to extract as much wealth in the most unethical and unlawful ways they possibly can. And the worst part is that they are given carte blanche to hide everything they do, there is zero transparency for the individual investor to know when they are being manipulated and taken advantage of. It's to the point that it is a joke to even try to invest. The individual investor is completely at the mercy of hedge funds and every ridiculous piece of trickery they care to pull out. They have zero fear of retribution and consequences for anything they do. And there is no end to the shady actions they employ. The SEC does nothing to help. It only gets consistently worse. Maybe , just maybe, for once, something will be done to reign the hedge funds in. And the market makers. And the brokers. And so on. The material injury that individual investors absorb constantly is simply a joke. We can't win because we don't get to play on the same field. It's not an uneven playing field. There are two entirely different fields, and we play on the lousy one. It doesn't have to be that way. It is quite conspicuous that these rule changes are coming about at this time when horrible short selling practices against so many companies are now coming to light, exposed by individual retail investors. And now those investors are getting manipulated into oblivion, again, as usual. What we are witnessing with these situations is the exact opposite of what should be occurring. Individual investors exposed these manipulative practices for what they are, and individual investors should absolutely be the ones to benefit and profit from it. As I say, that all these rules are being placed or changed at this time is conspicuous. I sincerely hope that the DTCC and NSCC use them proactively to stamp out the abusers and ensure that the individual investors come out of this with every ounce of wealth they earned and deserve from their efforts. Thank you for listening.