Apr. 21, 2022
Hello, I am a retail and retirement plan investor. This proposed ruling has been brought to my attention, and I wish to convey my strong disapproval. I feel that this rule is very much counter to the interest of retail investors and appears to benefit primarily hedge funds that short stocks (both borrowed and "naked') and who seek to cause businesses to fail for those funds' profit. By encouraging and reducing the risks that truly should come with predatory behavior like that, the proposed rule would degrade investors' confidence in the market while also being damaging to the health of companies when working through challenges (such as brought on by the covid pandemic). I feel that it is very important for public confidence in the stock market. that investments in stock contribute to true discovery -- stock purchases should be reflected in the stocks' prices and not be manipulated by continual and repeated borrowing to short stocks (or even naked shorting done without even borrowing!). Funds that gamble betting on a company's failure, or worse, that try to even hurt a companies' health, should be at risk of failure themselves when doing that and not be protected from possible results of risky or predatory behaviors. Shorting of stock should remain something that is done only at possible risk of unlimited losses. But this rule would only protect those who risk perpetually shorting stocks, particularly when the perpetrators associate with brokers making retail transactions be done in "dark pools". The SEC should be engaged in policing the use of dark pools and protecting retail investors, not in protecting hedge funds from the consequences of their own risky and predatory behavior. The proposed rule is counter to the purposes of the SEC and is not at all to the benefit of the investing public. Please re-evaluate and reject this very ill-advised rule! Hedge funds and institutions already enjoy significant advantages over retail investors, they should not now be given a way to get out of any trouble they get themselves into! Thank you, George Willam Waslo