December 29, 2011
Any rule change should be only be taken if it provides a true benefit to the average retail investor like myself. In the present system, the retail investor is seriously disadvantaged in the market due to the ability of large professional traders to co-locate their computers at the NYSE to gain a trading edge, the ability to see order flow and pricing before the retail investor, the ability to execute trades at a fraction of a penny (4 decimal points), etc.
The typical on-line retail investor is constrained to placing order in penny increments and watching many trades take place a fraction of a penny above or below their bid or asking price. High Frequency Trading and fractional penny trading sucks liquidity out of the market for retail investors - it does not provide liquidity. It would be nice for the SEC to take actions that truly help level the playing field for retail investors.