Apr. 20, 2022
To Whom it may concern: I am a retail investor, and I implore you to vote against this rule change. The proposed rule is explicitly crafted to facilitate avoidance of market price discovery through onward lending. This is essentially the entire purpose of this rule. It removes that infinite risk of naked shorting entirely, and in so doing, removes the deterrent of engaging in what is supposed to be very risky business by design. It's all upside for the hedge funds and large players, and all downside for those on the wrong side of their shorts. This cannot be allowed to erode our markets even further, and is clearly an attempt at obfuscating the markets further through added complexity. The playing field is already very imbalanced, but this would create chaos and havoc through volatility in the markets. There would be no deterrent for short sellers, and any and every company on the open market would be at risk of artificial price suppression based on the whims of the short sellers. This rule must not be passed.