Rule 611, the Order Protection Rule, has quietly protected every investor's trade since 2005. The SEC just proposed to eliminate it, with nothing in its place. You have until August 17 to tell them no. It takes about two minutes.
What's happening
On June 11, 2026, the SEC proposed rescinding Rule 611, the "Order Protection Rule." For twenty years it has made one simple promise: no market can execute your order at a worse price than the best price publicly displayed somewhere else.
It is the floor under every trade, the thing that makes the "best price" actually mean something. The SEC wants to remove that floor and replace it with nothing. The Commission's own data says who pays for that: retail investors like you.
Why it matters
We didn't have to make this case. The Commission's own release and economic analysis make it for us.
Rule 611 is the only rule that guarantees, trade by trade, that you can't be filled at a worse price than the best one publicly displayed. The SEC would remove it the moment the change takes effect, with no order-by-order substitute.
With no floor under your price, nothing stops a wholesaler from filling your order at a worse price and keeping the gap. This isn't our theory; it's the Commission's own conclusion.
In November 2025, when a set of quotes gained trade-through protection, off-exchange trade-throughs on them collapsed. Remove protection market-wide and that same mechanism runs in reverse.
The rule costs each trading center about $31,000 a year to comply with. The cost to investors from worse prices, by a conservative estimate, is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, every year.
By the numbers
A 98.4% drop the moment trade-through protection applied — the SEC's own November 2025 round-lot data. Rescinding Rule 611 runs this in reverse, across the whole market.
A rounding error for Wall Street, paid for by retail investors.
Take action
The most effective comment is one in your own words. We've written a starting point. Edit it, then send it in two taps.
Add a sentence about why fair pricing matters to you. A personal note counts far more than a form letter.
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We the Investors filed a 13-page letter built almost entirely from the SEC's own record and economic analysis. Read it to go deeper, download the PDF, or open our Google Doc to make it your own and file it under your name.
Writing your own?
Questions
Yes. By law the SEC must review and consider every comment before it can finalize a rule, and a strong public record also matters if the rule is later challenged in court. Individual investors are the counterweight to industry lobbying, and the Commission is watching the volume of opposition.
No. A few honest sentences about why fair pricing matters to you carry more weight than a polished form letter. Use the draft above as a starting point and make it your own.
Yes. The SEC posts all comments publicly, including any personal details you include. Share only what you're comfortable making public. Your name is optional.
About two minutes. Edit the draft, open your pre-filled email, and hit send.
Comments are due August 17, 2026. Earlier is better, so don't wait for the last day.
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