I'm a retail investor from Sweden who's been an investor in AMC since January 2021. AMC is the owner of Sweden's largest cinema chain (Filmstaden) and I found it important to try and help a struggling company to survive. Little did I know that short sellers with seemingly endless liquidity tried the exact opposite: to bankrupt the company through short selling and driving down the stock price. In a way it felt like they were kicking someone who was already down. Since then I've become more and more invested in AMC, especially since the company managed to turn things around to the positive this year. Unfortunately the short sellers are deeply invested in their short positions, and refuse to realize they made a bad (and deeply immoral) bet against the company. Instead they are manipulating the stock price on a daily basis, use loop holes to avoid covering their positions, trade through dark pools with zero transparency, pay off mainstream media to write "hit pieces" on AMC's fundamentals, and so on. Basically they are doing everything they can to not only bankrupt this company, but also make roughly 4.1 million retail investors invested in the company lose a lot of money. Because they made a bad (and deeply immoral) bet against the company. Right now I have lost almost all faith in the US stock market. I have never in my life witnessed such blatant corruption with little to no consequences. You (Finra) and the SEC have the whole world looking at you to make things right and to repair the US stock market's reputation. Otherwise I can guarantee that me and a lot of others will take our investments elsewhere, and I think the turning point will be of terrible consequences for the US economy. This rule filing is a good first step in the right direction, I'm only worried it's too little too late. Because whenever new rules are enacted, the short sellers find a new loophole to abuse. Do things right, both for me as a retail investor, but especially the struggling businesses that these predators are exploiting. And do it now.
Christopher Comment On Regulatory Notice 21-19
I'm a retail investor from Sweden who's been an investor in AMC since January 2021. AMC is the owner of Sweden's largest cinema chain (Filmstaden) and I found it important to try and help a struggling company to survive. Little did I know that short sellers with seemingly endless liquidity tried the exact opposite: to bankrupt the company through short selling and driving down the stock price. In a way it felt like they were kicking someone who was already down. Since then I've become more and more invested in AMC, especially since the company managed to turn things around to the positive this year. Unfortunately the short sellers are deeply invested in their short positions, and refuse to realize they made a bad (and deeply immoral) bet against the company. Instead they are manipulating the stock price on a daily basis, use loop holes to avoid covering their positions, trade through dark pools with zero transparency, pay off mainstream media to write "hit pieces" on AMC's fundamentals, and so on. Basically they are doing everything they can to not only bankrupt this company, but also make roughly 4.1 million retail investors invested in the company lose a lot of money. Because they made a bad (and deeply immoral) bet against the company. Right now I have lost almost all faith in the US stock market. I have never in my life witnessed such blatant corruption with little to no consequences. You (Finra) and the SEC have the whole world looking at you to make things right and to repair the US stock market's reputation. Otherwise I can guarantee that me and a lot of others will take our investments elsewhere, and I think the turning point will be of terrible consequences for the US economy. This rule filing is a good first step in the right direction, I'm only worried it's too little too late. Because whenever new rules are enacted, the short sellers find a new loophole to abuse. Do things right, both for me as a retail investor, but especially the struggling businesses that these predators are exploiting. And do it now.