I have a feeling the only the only people concerned about this is us dorks here on ET. I don't hear about any quant or high frequency funds getting their panties in a bunch. What about the nyse or the cme? Not hearing much from the those who stand to lose EVERYTHING! Come on guys, you're all a bunch of paranoid schizophrenics.
Just posted on another thread. It is here. Title: A Technical Analysis of Impact of Proposed Transaction Tax ----------------------------------------------------------------- Summary ======= Want to know some detailed and interesting numbers. Please read on. In short, the market will shrink 83.5% to a level of 16.5% of total average trading volume. The proposed transaction tax total were to be 27.04 billion (minus losing capital gain, and others) instead of naively expected 160 billion per year after considering the shrinking volume. Consider losing capital gain and losing businesses, the actual total tax increase from the market were close to zero or negative. (UK actually already proved this result by seeing its total tax amount plat (plus problems) after introduced the transaction tax. ) If this tax were to pass, for short term traders, they were out. Even the so so investors were to be hit hard as well. This is what the "negligible" transaction tax will bring us. Please read more if you want to know some detail numbers and why this can be concluded from a different point of view as compared to many of you see the same results from various angles.
This bill doesn't even mention the amount of the proposed tax. It simply says a small tax on transactions - what kind of bs is that? BTW I don't think this bill has a chance of passing either as it varies greatly from what Obama has talked about as far as healthcare is concerned. Edit: It looks like the bill has been floating around since February 2005. Not sure what that means exactly, lol... -Guru
A Transaction Tax won't matter much after our assets are taxed. Cars, houses, boats, guns, stamp/coin collections...etc etc. Or when every account we have at every bank is confiscated to pay off da Gubmints debt.
Whether the market is correct or not is not my concern. I simply take advantage of the tug of war between buyers and sellers.
? the legislators want to punish the hedge funds and wall street. they don't give a damn about traders on ET who will lose their livelihood. how many of you are going to take the time to write to congress. how many of you took seriously the numbers which i presented which shows that if your trading results are flat you would lose 100% of your capital within 6 months. "$250 X 200 trading days is $50,000 + commissions. at just 2:1 gearing you would be broke before the middle of the year with a flat performance." forget about "hoping'. take action by writing congress and asking your broker to assist.
I disagree. I think the reason behind this is fairly simple. There is a certain class of people who want to be central planners. They want to "run" this country. Speculation is anathema to them. You can't have central planning and speculation at the same time. They contradict one another. Speculation must be done away with if you are to central plan. Everything the gov has done so far is about setting prices for homes, bonds, etc. Specs must be stopped! simple as that
We must get more Republicans into Congress in 2010. Let's hope that this inexorable march toward socialism falls just short of truly materializing. Whenever there's economic upheaval, the door opens for the radical left to grasp for power. But this is still America. One thing that worries me again is how all this spate of frauds now coming to light might stoke further public outrage toward anything tied to wall st. I continue to be scared.