Retail investors are occupying the SEC headquarters in Washington D.C. on January 27th and January 28th from 10am-4pm.
The 28th marks the two-year anniversary of the ‘meme stock’ frenzy of 2021 when Robinhood and other brokerage firms prevented investors from buying more shares of GameStop, AMC, and other heavily shorted stock in order to prevent firms from collapsing.
Regulators interfered with the people’s money by suppressing shares from rising.
Majority of investors within these communities never left, but rather hoped for justice and change in the financial system.
Retail investors have raised the issues of dark pools, OTC trading, and a number of conflicts of interest that pin regular investors to the ground.
Discussions surfaced in 2022 of protesting several SEC locations in the U.S. but never came to fruition.
Some retail investors argued against these actions while many more said they are necessary to get their voices heard.
Here’s what’s happening in the retail community today.
What is Occupy SEC 2023?
The objective of occupying the SEC is to demand changes in the financial markets and to protect retail investors and companies from naked short selling and short selling misconduct.
The nationwide protests will occur on January 27th and January 28th between 10am and 4PM at 12 SEC locations, including the SEC headquarters in Washington D.C.
Outrage filled the retail community when SEC Chairman Gary Gensler confirmed 90%-95% of retail orders are processed in off-exchange platforms where the true demand for retail orders is not being reflected on the lit New York Stock Exchange.
The Wall Street ‘watch dogs’ turned a blind eye to the Madoff events that occurred during the last decade and now they’ve turned a blind eye to naked short selling and several conflicts of interest happening today within the media, hedge funds, and even regulators.
Retail investors are saying ‘we know’ what’s happening and ‘we need you to take care of it now’.
Occupy the SEC 2023 are meant to be peaceful protests.
Communities are tired of their investments in their favorite companies plummeting all because they’ve become targets of aggressive short sellers and manipulative tactics from Wall Street.
Now they’re taking the word to the streets despite gaining much attention on social media.
The lack of market transparency since the events that occurred in January of 2021 have led to these protests.
Occupy SEC 2023 LIVE
You can watch Occupy the SEC 2023 LIVE here.
Retail investors chant “do your job” when referring to the inaction from the SEC.
What is Stopping the SEC from Taking Action?
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler told ‘We The Investors’ he understands retail’s frustrations.
But retail investors aren’t convinced.
The SEC Chairman says that short selling is a challenging area where the SEC is still working and pursuing focus on.
One of the biggest challenges according to Chairman Gensler is that Wall Street powers will send stacks of reports highlighting rebuttals on proposals aimed towards protecting retail investors.
This is primarily because certain proposals aimed to protect retail investors conflict with Wall Street money.
And because these firms are market participants, like retail investors, these documents must be legally reviewed.
The challenge only grows when Wall Street firms open lawsuits against the SEC when certain proposals become a direct hinderance to the way these companies perform.
Regulators are in a massive bind now, facing scrutiny from both Wall Street and the average investor.
FINRA, DTCC Under Retail Scrutiny
FINRA has received backlash after freezing the trading of MMTLP (Meta Materials) prior to its spinoff.
The self-regulated organization is also responsible for outsourcing ‘best execution’ with the best execution rule, according to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
This means FINRA has the power to execute orders in off-exchange and dark markets for ‘best execution’ and ‘price discovery’.
But Gary Gensler says that this rule is too important for it to not be in the SEC’s court.
The organization contains records of every trade made available intraday, including that of naked short sales.
FINRA requires firms to be able to meet their short sale requirements as well as have a process to close out fails to deliver within their required timeframes.
However, they’re the open window that allows these manipulative strategies to occur in the market.
FTDS (fails-to-deliver) are mounting up every month according to SEC data, and FINRA is unable to get firms to close out these obligations.
FINRA’s justification towards FTDs say that firms face challenges related to miscalculations.
But Chairman Gensler says this is too important for it to not be handled directly by he and his team.
DTCC Conflicts of Interest
David Inggs is Global Head of Operations at Citadel and is responsible for all products across asset servicing, billing, cash management, clearing, and has a board seat at the DTCC.
The conflict of interest has raised big concerns amongst the retail investor community online as Citadel has been a leading and one of the biggest short sellers in the stock market.
On January 28th, 2021, The DTCC waived $9.7 billion of collateral deposit, limiting institutional losses and limiting retail profits during the ‘meme stock’ frenzy.
The organization allowed several naked shares to flood the market prior to the massive jump in share prices only to help financial institutions in the end.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has said one proposal they’re looking at this year involves tackling conflicts of interest in the financial markets.
How can investors support the cause?
Retail investors have been supporting the cause for years now by distributing news and information that sheds light on real issues.
Franknez.com is a media blog that supports retail investors and protects the retail community from mainstream media propaganda.
You can raise awareness in your community by sharing this article, and others, or by using hashtag #OccupySEC2023 on social media.
Advisory: This article is intended for educational and informational purposes only. This article is not advocating violence of any kind during these peaceful rallies.
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