“Regulatory policy has not kept pace with the significant changes that have occurred in our stock market within the last few decades, according to a CFA white paper on market structure. The white paper analyzes those market changes and proposes reforms that are designed to foster transparency, ensure high market quality, minimize conflicts of interest, guarantee a level playing field for all market participants, and promote stability within the marketplace. “Our current equity market structure reflects in many ways the achievement of the Exchange Act’s goal of having multiple competing venues linked through technology,” said CFA Financial Services Counsel and report author Micah Hauptman. “While competition and technology have brought great progress to our equity markets, the pendulum has swung too far. Excessive competition has resulted in a market that is unnecessarily complex, fragmented, lacking basic transparency mechanisms, and ridden with conflicts of interest. The technological arms race has led to trading activities that disadvantage long-term investors, expose the financial system to excessive risks, and shake investor  confidence.” In the white paper, CFA advocates for policies to be designed to promote healthy competition that serves the interests of investors and capital formation. The goal should be to ensure that market participants are using technology in productive rather than destructive ways. While the paper details significant ways in which our markets are not delivering on the objectives that Congress intended when it created the National Market System, it also reminds stakeholders to keep perspective in how our markets are actually functioning.”