I will be writing the SEC about this matter as I urge all traders whether you trade in options or not to voice your concerns. This is a matter of principle. In the short term, they may be able to steal from the public (assuming this goes through). However, in the long term they are simply shooting themselves in the foot. No one will participate in a lop sided market. Volume will shrivel and die off very soon. I am rather alarmed at the trend in the US market regulations. It seems that they are squeezing the life out of the markets every time they impose an artificial restriction on it. Whether it is the PDT rules or this option proposals. This does not bode well for the health of US markets. If this trend continues they will slowly fall off their pedestal as the worlds deepest and most diverse markets. It seems we are again ignoring the lessons taught to us by von Mises and others [www.mises.org].
Guys i'm only new here but don't you think its time for a more aggressive role at countering these moves??? With the PDT ruling as example,now this.whats next? Whether its addition funding to IB to fight or whatever i get the feeling that writing letters while i agree it needs to be done it does'nt really get us anywhere does it? PDT rule showed that. Perhaps a "canned" response back at best. I don't even trade with IB but would be willing to put into a fund to do some "fighting back" I'm sure once word spread and numbers grew the cost to the individual would'nt even be very high. helping IB was just 1 idea that may or may not be a workable solution...But don't you think that its time for action rather than letters that just get thrown in a pile??? I think the message is becoming clearer "stamp out private short term traders" by whatever method they trade by I have already been predjudiced against for not having 25K A level playing field for all??? I Think Not
I sent the following email to two columnists, one for briefing.com and one for thestreet.com. Even if they do not write about this issue themselves, they may pass the info to others who will. If you know of columnists who might be interested or whose company's have a stake in the survival of day traders, please consider contacting them. Feel free to use or improve my wording. _______________ fast ******************** Perhaps you already know about this -- if so, sorry, but I am seeing a trend toward increasing restriction of day traders and want to make sure key people know about this latest development. The Amex and Phlx have proposed new rules that will severely hinder participation of off-floor traders (day traders) in options trading by restricting their limit orders and other types of activity that are broadly defined as market making (ie. buying and selling the same option in the same day). The head legal council of Interactive Brokers wrote a comment letter to the SEC explaining the rules in detail. If interested, you can find it at: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/download/comment13.pdf A traders' discussion thread for these proposed rules is located at: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=1136 Thank you. [my name and full contact info] ***************
I propose that traders start a lobbying effort. We probably need one or two issues to start that a really important and then we could really get moving. Although it doesn't affect me I think PatternDayTrader rule is the most obnoxious rule I have seen since they took away the right to drink from kids who can be drafted and die for their country. (I know thats off the point but at that time I was really pissed off at legislation to point I saw red) If enough people want to start an effort I will be happy to contact the SEC on behalf of the group or you people want someone else to do it I will give him/her any help they want. To start we need to see if there is interest on this or any other issue. I propose that if we get 20 to 30 people to agree on an issue we then form a plan from there. So what is the issue and what is our position? My vote= elimination of pattern daytrader what is your vote. My second vote is to show our support for the benefits of shorting.
Count me in on anything pro active As far as the PDT goes this was done in 3 stages 1)Enforce no instant clearing in cash accounts therefore anyone wanting to daytrade had to get margin.(this includes learners) 2)Once you now have margin the new rules state that if you do more than 3 daytrades in 5 days you are PDT.(this includes learners) 3)Now you are PDT you must have and maintain 25k.(this includes learners and predjuces against people with less than 25K) Just my thoughts but would'nt the writing in bold be at least one angle of attacking it.?? SPEAK UP PEOPLE.. the silence from you is deafening
What next piece of great news does the SEC have in store for us? Ahhh, yes, perhaps it may wish to extend the options regulation re: banning multiple acquisitions and liquidations of options intraday to the stock markets. The next step is gonna be the use of verbiose words to effectively ban daytrading stocks because it constitutes "market making" off-floor. Just a wacky thought, but maybe we have now got a legitimate target for the terrorists: the lawyers making this crazy rules on behalf of the SEC. The SEC are on course to kill options daytrading, and I am sure they have got stocks daytrading in the back of their evil little minds. This is making me sick, mad and angry. They have already killed sub-$25k'ers from daytrading stocks. Are they now planning to ban us all because it constitutes "market-making". I tell ya something, the SEC is gonna make a terrorist out of every daytrader on this planet if they continue to act like this. Thank God for the ECNs. And thank God they haven't signed up to the SuperSOES shit which would have put them at the mercy of the market makers. Let's hope that ISLD becomes its own exchange in due course. As stock daytraders we all have the obligation to inundate the SEC with letters to help stop our options daytraders brothers businesses from being killed by these new options regulations. We must stand united as daytraders, regardless of what instruments we are trading. The regulators are out to kill us all. In addition to writing to the evil devils at the SEC, we must write letters to all brokers who allow us to trade options, in order to urge them to complain to the SEC. IB have been proactive... we need other options brokers like Cybertrader to start being proactive too. I am angry, mad and determined ... the SEC will target the stock daytraders when they have finished with the options daytraders. God Bless America and may God keep America's capital markets free and fair for all.
Got following response from one of my emails to make key people aware of these proposed SEC restrictions of options trading: "Thanks for the info - I wasn't aware of this story. No guarantees, but I'll try to take a look at it soon. Regards,.. This confirms that some people in influential positions have not yet heard about this and that some of them may be interested. Again, if any of you have contacts with analysts, reporters, or others who reach large audiences, please consider contacting them. Even if they already know about it, your concern may motivate them to write about it, which will alert more people. I wish we had an organized day traders lobby to refer people to; so far I have just included a reference to this thread and the IB letter provided by def.
You need to get Barron's or WSJ to run a short story on these SRO restrictions. Articles in these will get the attention needed.
Nordic, Thanks for the suggestions. I meant to ask what media are considered the most influential for this topic. If anyone knows of other media and/or specific reporters who might have an interest in this issue, or who might be interested in an open, democratic market, or who might report on SEC regulations, etc., let me know and I will try to contact them. Yesterday I sent an email to an analyst/reporter who has ties with Barron's, but would welcome the name of a specific Barron's reporter -- also for WSJ. I refined my email and think it is more effective now.
If this rule does go into effect, a trader could still join up with echotrade or some other proprietary shop that offers options trading. That way a trader could still day trade options. Right? On another note, why aren't institutions like mutual funds screaming their heads off about these new rules? If the rules take effect, bids might get even higher and volume will drop. If they need to hedge a position, aren't they getting screwed even more than before?