(WSJ) The Securities and Exchange Commission scrapped plans to vote Wednesday on a rule that would have increased regulators’ visibility into financial risks at some hedge funds and private equity funds.
After scheduling the vote last week, the five-member commission “decided to take a little more time” on the rule, an SEC spokeswoman said.
She declined to comment on whether the cancellation owed to a lack of majority support from the commission, which is composed of three Democrats and two Republicans.
Several SEC commissioners could not immediately be reached for comment.
The rule, proposed early last year over Republican opposition, would have increased reporting requirements for filers of a confidential document called Form PF.
Among other proposed changes, it would have required large hedge funds to file reports within one business day of incidents such as extraordinary investment losses, defaults by major counterparties or spikes in margin requirements.
The rule sparked pushback from lobbyists for the hedge-fund and private-equity industries in Washington.
The Managed Funds Association, which represents hedge funds, urged the SEC last week to hold off on finalizing the rule until it was ready to adopt a separate Form PF proposal issued last August.
Who is the Managed Funds Association?
The Managed Funds Association, or MFA, is an association made up of a variety of hedge fund managers, including Citadel, Two Sigma, Point72, and Millennium Management.
That’s right, some of the industry’s biggest short sellers and the SEC just prolonged this transparency rule.
Citadel, Anchorage (defaulted), Millennium Management, and Bank of America are a few of the members who are or have been short on ‘meme stocks’ such as AMC Entertainment.
For years now, retail investors who were part of the events that occurred in 2021 have urged the SEC to enforce proper regulation from sneaky hedge funds and banks with overleveraged short positions.
The SEC has sparked excitement within the retail community when it’s announced proposals that would shed light on darker markets — however, trust has been severed as the regulator has only proved to be complicit to market injustices.
Dark pools, OTC trading, and naked shorting have suppressed retail’s favorite company stocks from rising on true demand.
Shorting has its purpose and is a useful tool to keep the markets balanced and in check.
Manipulative shorting on the other hand is what retail activists are fighting against — the un-American type that sinks businesses and disrupts innovation.
Northwest Biotherapeutics sued Citadel and other market makers for manipulating its stock price in December of 2022.
Ken Griffin’s Citadel chose to profit from the US cancer drug company through the means of short selling, a practice the hedge fund/market maker is notoriously known for.
Rather than allow the company to raise money for its treatments, hedge funds teamed up to profit from manipulated falling share prices.
But the lawsuit comes as no surprise to the retail community as Citadel has a long history of market manipulation.
Retail Investors Organize and Fight Back
‘We The Investors’ is taking Wall Street head on which means retail investors from around the world are now being represented in a way like never before for the first time in history.
More than 1,300 letters have been submitted to the SEC supporting rules proposed in December that represent the biggest changes to equities trading in nearly two decades, according to Reuters.
The collective of retail investors have joined ‘We The Investors’ led by Dave Lauer in efforts to combat Wall Street as a legitimate organization that sprouted from the events of the ‘meme stock’ frenzy in 2021.
Halts in AMC, GameStop, and other stocks during at the time angered many investors which led to the exposure of crime and market injustices on social media.
Retail investors have been pushing for market transparency ever since.
We The Investors has held two online meetings since December with SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who took questions directly from retail investors on the proposals, which include requiring most retail stock orders to be sent to auctions to boost competition.
Other proposed rules call for a new standard for brokers to demonstrate they’ve gotten the best execution for clients on transactions, as well as lower trading increments and access fees on exchanges, and stronger disclosure around retail order executions.
But Wall Street, including Ken Griffin’s Citadel is pushing back.
Related: “The Game is Rigged”, Says Ex-Citadel Data Scientist
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