the PDT rules are flat out scary. now that we've let them get away with this, what's next? extend it to accounts under 50k? i find it sad that they're even getting away with the current PDT rules. all you folks with large accounts that don't care because it doesn't affect you, just wait til the rules expand enough to affect your trading. you might sing a different tune then. there really needs to be some type of organization that represents traders. on our own, our complaints probably won't do much, but there's strength in numbers. i would even pay dues for an organization to represent me. kind of like how the ACLU defends the 1st amendment. would an organization for traders that models the ACLU (http://www.aclu.org/) be something worth doing? does anyone know if any exist already? if not, i would even consider starting one. hehe my main question is this: do we even have rights as traders? since we trade through exchanges, does what we say even matter? are the exchanges treated like private schools where they can basically make their own rules? or are we traders supposed to have the ability to trade regardless of our account size? by that i don't mean you should be able to trade an emini with $500 or anything....of course there should be some restrictions. i just mean, can it be argued that under the principles of this country, one man shouldn't be forced to trade less frequently depending on if his account size is less than 25k or not? if you go to the "about us" section on aclu.org, you'll see that before the ACLU existed, civil liberties were not as defended. it seems that we traders are in a similar situation. "In 1920, when the ACLU was founded by Roger Baldwin, Crystal Eastman, Albert DeSilver and others, civil liberties were in a sorry state. Activists were languishing in jail for distributing anti-war literature. Foreign-born people suspected of political radicalism were subject to summary deportation. Racial segregation was the law of the land and state sanctioned violence against African Americans was routine. Constitutional rights for lesbians and gay men, the poor and many other groups were virtually unthinkable. Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court had yet to uphold a single free speech claim under the First Amendment." http://www.aclu.org/about/aboutmain.cfm
Check out this link from another thread. Things haven't changed all that much in 83 years. Now it's the foreign-born people suspected of political radicalism who are languishing in jail, while people want to subject anti-war activists to summary deportation
I get it now - you mean that someone else should get off theit butts, do the grunt work, AND fund the effort of changing what you don't like. Thanx for clearing that up for me.