The Securities and Exchange Commission asked the public to weigh in on its decision to make quarterly reports optional—and boy did they get it. While not all of the comments appear to have been posted on the SEC website, more than 169,000 have been. "Without these quarterly disclosures the investing public will lack the timely insights upon which we depend to make informed investment decisions. Another echoes those comments, reading "Quarterly earnings reports holds companies more accountable and we consistently need that mitigate the risk of dramatic changes in the markets. "We do not believe a move to semiannual reporting would result in a reduction of material or timely information available to investors because material quarterly information is disclosed independently," Exxon wrote.