This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

CNBC's Open Debate on Stock Market Rigging

There was a heated debate on April 1, 2014 focusing on whether Main Street sees that Wall Street is rigging the stock market.  The focus of this lively reparte' were high speed tradoing and scalping opportunities from retail investors who do not have the technology to trade at high speeds.  The stock market does seem to be the only way to get an appreciable return on your money with the likes of Apple, Google, and most recently Netflix garnering triple digit returns in 2012, 2013, and 2014.  How does Main Street (you and me) compete with hedge funds and others who move large blocks of stock in milliseconds versus the retail investor who does not have the resources to make such plays?  The other area open for debate is the manipulation of stock prices by analysts who can change a stock price or a stock's rating in a report with no responsibility to the public for the drop in a stock price, based in part on their reports or speculation.  Currently there is an apparent animosity towards the largest non-petroluem company in the world, Apple, with analysts sniping at the most promising earnings reports. Rumors rule the day as is with the recent downfall of Netflix and Facebook.  The Securities and Exchange Commission was born out of the Great Depression and was focused on stock manipulation through insider trading.  These rules, which came out of 1934, certainly require an update to level the playing field for retail investors and to give the Stock Markets some validity versus being a casino run by the rich and powerful.  Certainly, the stock market is a place of opportunity, but the government should scrutinize these analysts who seem to affect stock prices.  The SEC should also be mindful of high frquency trading to give Main Street some confidence in Wall Street.  It is bad enough that many retail traders cannot participate in after market trading and the pre-market where stocks can open with losses before the sun breaks through here in the West.  The solution to these manipulative forces is for the SEC to scrutinize these forces more closely and to ignore the lobbyists who claim the stock market is just a symbol of American Capitalism.  Perhaps the stock market should be more democratic and favor retail investors.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?