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their methods of dealing with the investing public have been the subject of exposés in major financial publications. Even so, the NASD will surely continue to advance proposals to the SEC on behalf of its members for advantages friendly to the financial community and taxing to the general investing public, including traders. However, it seems likely that the SEC will only approve regulatory changes that benefit the public.
This is not to say that a different execution system will not eventually replace SOES as a trading mechanism, but you can rest assured that DAET is here to stay. If you just look at the actions of the SEC, you can see for yourself that any proposed trading system that impedes public access and the flow of information will not pass muster. The new reality is that the SEC will not rubber-stamp any NASD proposal that curtails investor access to the best market or limits the flow of market knowledge to the investing public.
If you want to predict the future, look at what people do instead of what they say. Examine what the NASD is proposing but do not rely upon it as gospel. Really focus on what Mr. Levitt and the new, enlightened SEC are actually doing. I cannot remember a time when there has been more positive leadership over the integrity of markets. Mr. Levitt was the former president of the AMEX and has extensive background in business and with the Wall Street community. Mr. Levitt seems to be more investor oriented than his predecessors and appears to be unwilling to accept NASD rule proposals at face value without supporting empirical data.
The SEC is now executing the mandate Congress issued in 1975 to make all markets transparent so that all participants can benefit from best-price information in the core market. The regulators are no longer as accommodative to the NASD and its members as they used to be. The national regulators are changing the market mechanism so that true competition by price and order size will prevail. In my judgment, the regulatory future will be much friendlier for average investors and DAET traders largely because the impediments to successful trading have diminished. Many advantages previously enjoyed by the market makers and the industry insiders have been removed.

 
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