http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703483604574630203374116082.html The CFTC passed new rules last week requiring more capital for FCMs and less leverage for trading desks too? If that is the case, it could lead to a fall out with some futures prop trading firms. I am looking into this more now. I think the regulators should focus on higher capital, regulation and most of all leverage. Less for deposit and lending institutions. Excerpts: "Under the new rules, published in the Federal Register, futures commission merchants will have to raise their adjusted net capital from a minimum of $250,000 to $1 million." "In addition, the rules will also stiffen margin requirements for commodity-brokerage firms trading on their own accounts, forcing them to raise the percentage used to calculate so-called maintenance margin requirements from 4% to 8%. That puts the requirement on par with the amount customers are required to maintain."
My comment on Govit.com follows the reasoning in my last post about focusing on capital and leverage to fix the problem. Same as with my IMF comment too. Problems need to be fixed at the source, not with a market-upsetting shotgun transaction tax. Govit Comment (part cut off for size limit) I have covered this tax topic in-depth on my blog, magazine articles and petitions to US Congress at www.greentradertax.com. This tax will seriously damage markets, economies and jobs. A better solution is to require higher levels of bank capital, regulation and constraints on leverage and trading within deposit and lending institutions. If you must raise funds for future potential bailouts, a more narrow-approach bank levy is better than a shotgun financial transaction tax. However, even a bank levy invites moral hazard with banks, so again, more capital and regulation is the answer. If the US passes this tax and other countries do not, the US will outsource its financial services leading market position to foreign countries. Switzerland, Hong Kong and other market centers will not enact this tax so it will competitively hurt the US and UK the most. The IMF is concerned with both of these countries improving their financial condition and this tax will hurt it. The IMF's initial reports and Secretary Geithner are correct on the levy being preferable over a tax. Only desperate political and non-profit elements hungry to win votes (UK Labour) and funds for social causes and a new global tax sovereignty regime (for climate control etc) are in favor of this tax. None of their reasons justify this economic destruction. Speculators make markets and markets are as important as products. Stifling or killing off speculation will raise prices for users like investors and farmers. It's government interference like price controls. Some desperate countries facing EU budget infractions may be interested in this market control but that is against IMF policies. There is no valid justification for this tax. The IMF report due in early 2010 is expected to put this financial firestorm out worldwide and in the US, UK and finally EU. Senator Harkin (D-Iowa) should listen to his own state farmers who oppose this tax. Wider spreads on prices can disrupt farm production.
http://www.rallycongress.com/no2tra...ock-trader-tax/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.rallycongress.com/greent...ation1/2720/go/ ARE THESE THOUSANDS AWARE EACH INDIVIDUAL MUST URGENTLY WRITE THE IMF A.S.A.P.
Corrected link http://www.rallycongress.com/greentradertax-traders-association1 we need all these petitions signed and sent to Congress. A press release for these petitions will be published this week. Great timing to get these letters in front of your Congressmen. Please find clever ways to spread the word and get thousands of more people to sign. Thanks.
yeh i've posted these links before. then there was that nice article at Reuters about Geithner rejecting the transaction tax. then the other nice article about imposing an e mail tax instead of the transaction tax. and like I said. there's no time for complacency. we're far away from 100 years of peace in a financial context. this year is long, and next year will be long. politicians are people, and people wanna talk. and every once then in while they'll come up with that goddamn financial transaction tax. politicians from europe are worst. but politicians from the USA - even liberals - and from India or China will sure be willing to oppose such a tax if we can talk them to reason
Robert, please don't mention this forum in any PR's. I'd rather keep this thread exclusively for traders that find us and industry professionals whom I invite here.
Like i've said many times the stock mkt has a huge x on its back as its gone wild to the upside enriching the very ones who caused the whole crisis. so for the avg person on the street who's suffering its a painless way to raise rev's and extract revenge against the "rich". i know it hurts the mkt but right now the masses see the 10's of billions of $'s the gs and bac's gave out in bonus money and want them to feel pain.unless the mkt corrects massive and stays down a while its going to be an issue
One on One with Duncan Niederauer, CEO, NASDAQ Euronext http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/gharib/duncan_niederauer_ceo_nasdaq_euronext_100104/ GHARIB: Let's talk a little bit about financial regulatory reform. The American public is looking to Congress to pass new rules that hopefully will prevent the financial system from breaking down in the future. What do you like the most? What don't you like? NIEDERAUER: I think a lot of what you are going to see from the SEC is directionally correct. It is going to be a lot around market structure. I don't know if it is necessarily going to be in the category of preventing a crisis. I think the best thing that has been talked about is on the OTC derivative space, more central clearing, more transparency. The thing I'm most worried about on the regulatory side is this talk of a transaction tax which I think would have very, very negative implications for volumes and for the cost of trading for retail investors. GHARIB: And this transaction tax would be on trades of stocks and options and futures. Is that a tax really just going to be passed on to investors? NIEDERAUER: That's my view. I'm actually writing a piece right now that I'm going to be distributing in the next couple of weeks. And among the points I make is one of the points you just made Susie, which is it's absolutely a pass-through tax. This idea, the way it's been packaged, to sell it to Main Street that it is a tax on Wall Street. It is not a tax on Wall Street. It is a tax on Main Street. It will flow down to the retail investor. It will flow down to the mutual fund holder. It is not going to be paid for by Wall Street.