I am a new retail investor. I hold GME and AMC stocks not only as a way to gain financial freedom, but also as a way to protest market manipulation and shed a light on corruption in Wallstreet. After learning about the blatant manipulation that is happening in the market, I have grown increasingly passionate about fighting for a free and fair market for all. I have witnessed the hedge funds illegally manipulate the market every day and steal from me and millions of other retail investors. I have no doubt that the prices of AMC and GME would be much higher if the hedge funds were not cheating. It makes me very angry that my hard earned money is being stolen from me and the criminals are being allowed to steal without repercussions. I will continue to hold these stocks until the playing field is level and justice is served. I appreciate the steps that Finra is taking to increase market transparency and fairness, but I believe that it needs to go even farther. Below are my answers to questions Finra asked in the regulatory notice. Question: What implementation period would be appropriate to provide members with sufficient time to make the system changes necessary to comply with this requirement? My Answer: Changes should be made as soon as possible. Question: FINRA is considering whether daily or weekly short interest position reporting would be preferable? What are the commenters' views on the preferred frequency of short interest position reporting? My Answer: DAILY Question: Are there any other short sale related changes not discussed above that commenters' recommend? My Answer: - Retail Investors need to be listened to. They should have a seat on the table and be included on panels and committees. - Brokers should be prohibited from restricting retail investors ability to trade stocks like was done by Robinhood and other brokers during the January "meme" stock short squeeze. Some brokers closed out retail investors positions without their knowledge. This is unacceptable in a free and fair market. Brokerages who engage in such activity need to be shut down. Restricting a retail investor's ability to buy a stock artificially lowers the stock value by artificially decreasing demand. - Canada has some of the most stringent dark pool regulations in the world. USA Dark Pool regulations should be modeled after Canadian dark pool regulations. - Fines should be greater than the profit the hedge fund made from the illegal activity. - Jail time is needed for market manipulation. It is stealing. Treat it as such. If I stole from a store I would not get a small fine. I would go to jail. So why are hedge funds allowed to steal from me and get only a small fine and no jail time? - Short positions should be forcibly closed out if illegal market manipulation is found and trading rights of those involved should be revoked. - Shorting taking place in dark pools needs to be disclosed to the pubic. If an institution buys shares in the dark pool and then dumps (sells) those same shares on the public exchanges to tank the price, this should have to be reported. - Fail to Delivers should be reported to the public as well as Finra. - Short interest should not be self reported. There should be a system in place to automatically report short interest. Perhaps a computer system could be designed to do this. - Brokers should be required to automatically route retail orders through the NYSE lit market rather then routing them through dark pools. At the very least brokers should be required to give clients this option. Placing orders through the NYSE directly, should be the default setting. - There should be audits done to check for shorts hidden in options. Each individual stock share should have a unique identifier attached to it. - It should be publicly reported when institutions are margin called and when they close out of their short positions.
Erica Comment On Regulatory Notice 21-19
I am a new retail investor. I hold GME and AMC stocks not only as a way to gain financial freedom, but also as a way to protest market manipulation and shed a light on corruption in Wallstreet. After learning about the blatant manipulation that is happening in the market, I have grown increasingly passionate about fighting for a free and fair market for all. I have witnessed the hedge funds illegally manipulate the market every day and steal from me and millions of other retail investors. I have no doubt that the prices of AMC and GME would be much higher if the hedge funds were not cheating. It makes me very angry that my hard earned money is being stolen from me and the criminals are being allowed to steal without repercussions. I will continue to hold these stocks until the playing field is level and justice is served. I appreciate the steps that Finra is taking to increase market transparency and fairness, but I believe that it needs to go even farther. Below are my answers to questions Finra asked in the regulatory notice. Question: What implementation period would be appropriate to provide members with sufficient time to make the system changes necessary to comply with this requirement? My Answer: Changes should be made as soon as possible. Question: FINRA is considering whether daily or weekly short interest position reporting would be preferable? What are the commenters' views on the preferred frequency of short interest position reporting? My Answer: DAILY Question: Are there any other short sale related changes not discussed above that commenters' recommend? My Answer: - Retail Investors need to be listened to. They should have a seat on the table and be included on panels and committees. - Brokers should be prohibited from restricting retail investors ability to trade stocks like was done by Robinhood and other brokers during the January "meme" stock short squeeze. Some brokers closed out retail investors positions without their knowledge. This is unacceptable in a free and fair market. Brokerages who engage in such activity need to be shut down. Restricting a retail investor's ability to buy a stock artificially lowers the stock value by artificially decreasing demand. - Canada has some of the most stringent dark pool regulations in the world. USA Dark Pool regulations should be modeled after Canadian dark pool regulations. - Fines should be greater than the profit the hedge fund made from the illegal activity. - Jail time is needed for market manipulation. It is stealing. Treat it as such. If I stole from a store I would not get a small fine. I would go to jail. So why are hedge funds allowed to steal from me and get only a small fine and no jail time? - Short positions should be forcibly closed out if illegal market manipulation is found and trading rights of those involved should be revoked. - Shorting taking place in dark pools needs to be disclosed to the pubic. If an institution buys shares in the dark pool and then dumps (sells) those same shares on the public exchanges to tank the price, this should have to be reported. - Fail to Delivers should be reported to the public as well as Finra. - Short interest should not be self reported. There should be a system in place to automatically report short interest. Perhaps a computer system could be designed to do this. - Brokers should be required to automatically route retail orders through the NYSE lit market rather then routing them through dark pools. At the very least brokers should be required to give clients this option. Placing orders through the NYSE directly, should be the default setting. - There should be audits done to check for shorts hidden in options. Each individual stock share should have a unique identifier attached to it. - It should be publicly reported when institutions are margin called and when they close out of their short positions.