A market is based on supply and demand. A stock market is based on supply and demand. The price on the stock market is normally made by buying and selling shares. Shorting is something else... like someone wants to see a company go bankrupt. In my view this is not the case if investing and the US need to stop allowing shorting. The short interest should not be self reported. That doesn’t make any sense because no one can trust Hedgefonds and their self reported datas because they would not indicate optimistic datas for investors who are long in the stock.

Financial regulation primary purpose is to both create a fair marketplace and create a public perception of a fair marketplace. To do this, financial regulation should work to eliminate uncertainty in the exchange process and work to eliminate volatility not due the fundamentals of the company who stock is being traded.

We need more transparency in the market. We, as retail investors are kept in the dark when it comes to the "free market" while hedge funds blatantly manipulate positions using illegal trading activity. The SEC and all the regulators need to enforce the new laws that have been put into place and quit letting manipulation happen why they take handouts from these financial crooks. So in short terms, we need transparency and we need laws to be held to the highest standards with actual consequences.

I think that transparency of market activity on a daily basis will keep the market safe.

I believe that complete short positions and short interests should be publicly reported on a hourly to daily basis for public knowledge. Without it, retail investors are at an unfair disadvantage.

Short interest reporting should be instantaneous. Not sure why the reporting on SI and other short positions data is so delayed and unreliable but for the market to be fair, both sides of positions need to see all data equally for manipulation to be in check. If changes to short data being made available publicly and in reasonable times then I fear the market will never be fair and retail investors will likely not put money into the system. Please see that all short position data, not only SI data, is made available instantaneously the same way long position data is.

FINRA and the SEC aren't doing enough to level the playing field for retail investors and we deserver the right for better transparency in the market. It's clear that illegal shorts are not covering their positions yet the slap on the wrist fines are merely considered the price to do business. This has to change!

Shorting as a market practice is a ridiculous concept to begin with because in no other area of a capitalist market can You borrow something that is already owned and then sell it, only to buy it back at a lower price to intentionally profit off of the original lender. That aside, self reporting clearly isn't working, and the ability for borrowed stock to be mis-marked, intentionally or otherwise, is a long standing pervasive issue. Shares need a better marking system to denote "BORROWED" and "SOLD WHILE BORROWED (shorted)" and a running tally until returned to the original lender.

There are no rules. Why even have all of this? Naked shorting continues, dark pool trading is out of control. EVERYTHING is set up for the institutions and the super rich to get richer, and the retail investor to be left holding a bag. The institutions are allowed to continue to gamble recklessly and get bailed out when it doesn’t go their way. There needs to be real change in the system to be fair, and transparent.

I feel that the reporting needs to be more frequently and made available to the public on short positions, naked shorts and shirt interest. Retail investors are at a disadvantage for not seeing the changes in markets and the flow of orders and the short interest that are restricted or limited to a monthly reporting scheme. It allows market makers and big players to manipulate the market and make profits based on hidden information restricting the opportunity to have a free market stock market.