Apr. 20, 2022
To Whom it May Concern, I am commenting as a United States citizen, taxpayer, and retail investor; I would like to make my opinion on this proposed rule known and put on record. I grew up always believing in America’s free and fair markets. I have dutifully and faithfully contributed to my 401Ks and my IRAs throughout my life. I never looked behind the curtain. In the past 2 years I have educated myself on our markets and to be honest I am appalled at what I have discovered. I no longer believe in America’s free and fair markets and I am quickly losing faith that the SEC and/or DOJ will be able to change the course and make our markets free, fair, and transparent. The proposed rule SR-NSCC-2022-003 is an absolute affront to any retail investor, both here and abroad, who has purchased a security in our markets. The market already seems stacked against retail as it is neither fair nor transparent and seem to favor large institutions who can frequently break the law (or, even worse, use legal loopholes written by well-meaning, self-governing bodies to the detriment of retail) and are fined but a pittance in comparison to their profits. The large institutions are incentivized to break the law and pay the small fine which is already calculated into their budget as “the cost of doing business.” I fear that this proposed rule is nothing more than another loophole for large financial institutions to take advantage of at the expense of the retail investor and the security that may be shorted. This rule flies in the face of fair market mechanics, and gives unlimited power and scope to potentially bad actors who would abuse such mechanics. It is set in place to "alleviate Fail To Delivers", but in action does nothing to eliminate them, and in effect protects the action of naked short selling, which is ALREADY ILLEGAL. It removes the infinite risk of naked shorting entirely, and in so doing the deterrent of engaging in what is supposed to be very risky business practice. This rule leverages the complexity of financial vehicles to put power in the hands of institutions, effectively safe-guarding them from their own bad bets. Passing this new rule would only further deteriorate the American public's and the international investor’s faith in America’s "free and fair market". I urge you to withdraw this proposal immediately.