Apr. 20, 2022
Dear SEC, I am a retail investor and am writing to voice my concern about SR-NSCC-2022-801. As an agency who is tasked with protecting retail investors such as myself, I would like you to please listen to my worries with an open mind. The inclusion of the Fire-Sale clause in this proposal is an open invitation to Market Makers like Citadel Securities to naked short securities without the consequence of near infinite downside. While we know that naked shorting is illegal, it happens, perhaps more often than the general retail investor has knowledge of given the convoluted nature of the market structure. Between internalization of buy orders, futures swaps and ETFs, Market Makers already have a near infinite runway to kick the can, but there has always been the FTD cycle that has kept us as retail investors ... well invested. Without a fair market, I am better off staking crypto or buying bonds to merely match the runaway inflation rate. However the promise of a reckoning for these shady can-kicking practices, has quite literally been the reason why I have maintained trust in the system. However, with the fire-sale clause in SR-NSCC-2022-801 and previous attempts at creating legal loopholes to avoid consequences of risky investments like in SR-NSCC-2021-010, I am losing hope in the SEC to represent my and the rest of retail's best interests. Please, I urge you to once and for all end these attempts at setting a second set of rules for retail and institutional investors. With great risk, there should come an equal reward or punishment. And this latest proposed rule will neuter the downside of the already illegal practice of naked shorting. We know that fines do not work as they don't cover enough of the upside, however the near infinite downside of naked shorting is keeping Market Makers in line. They got caught. Now it's time to pay the piper. Help us as retail investors, make a market worth EVERYONE participating in. If you would like suggestions on where a rule can really do good as opposed to harm like this one, look no further than Payment for Order Flow, Market Maker Spoofing of buy and sell orders to coordinate and manipulate price, or the use of ETFs like XRT to hide massive short interest in the underlying securities. We need you. Please do the right thing and a whole generation of investors will have their faith restored in the system. Thank you for your time, Tyler Walker US taxpayer, investor & engineer