This paper argues that the key mechanisms protecting retail investors' financial stake in their portfolio investments are indirect. They do not rely on actions by the investors or by any private actor directly charged with looking after investors' interests. Rather, they are provided by the...

Indirect investor protection (Spamann 2022) makes investment in most public securities safe even without understanding their terms or the underlying business. SPACs disable this protection by offering two alternative payoffs from the same security, the SPAC share, in the de-SPAC: the redemption...