Personally, I think that IEX becoming an exchange is a done deal and have absolutely no problem with that.  What causes me concern (and many of the opposition letters point to this as well) is that we don&#x27;t want IEX becoming an exchange to be seen as some sort of referendum on HFT and specifically how HFT impacts individual investors.<p>The biggest reason for that is that I believe that individual investors are dramatically better off in a world of cheap wholesale market makers than they could ever be being dumped in the shark tank of hedge funds that is IEX. I have no problem with institutional investors who want to take advantage of IEX if they think that is best, they are professionals and that is their job to figure that out (though I wouldn&#x27;t want to be invested with an institutional investor who wanted to trade on IEX because I would be suspicious of their competence).  What I find really scummy is the marketing ploys of IEX to try to frame this as in someway good for individual investors.<p>[edit] Obligatory, please if you&#x27;ve read Flash Boys read &quot;Flash Boys: Not So Fast&quot;.  No one who understands&#x2F;has worked in electronic trading that I&#x27;ve met believes that Flash Boys is anything but misrepresentative and bad.