One thing I am beginning to believe is that the company should be the DPM in its own stock, not some arbitrary third party like GS or MS. Then remove all the uptick rules. That means you not only have to have an interest in your business, you also have to have an interest in the integrity of the value of your stock.
if there's a tax then people would just widen their quotes. if i have make a market 10 at 11 hoping to make 1 but the cost is greater then 1 then i post 10 at 12 instead.
I think you're correct in that there's no way people will stop making markets. If I have to do 9 at 12 vs. 10 at 11 to cover my costs, that's obviously what I'll do vs. packing up and calling it a business venture. My concern would then be if only certain individuals have to pay a tax. This is a scenario I could see playing out all too easily. Bernie getting up there and saying "alright, tax time, I realize what I said initially about an FTT was a mistake because now quotes are gonna go to 9 at 12 when they used to be 10 at 11, so I'm gonna let the DMMs keep operating tax free, create [SEC regulatory department name here] to watch them, everyone else needs to pay a tax." That would be worrisome.
Everything the government tries to do turns into a debacle, and this would be no different. A good rule of thumb is to assume that whatever the name of the "bill" is, the exact opposite will happen. So when they named Obamacare "the affordable care act" you knew we would see double digit cost increases for the foreseeable future. I'm assuming if there were to be a FTT, it would be called the "Wall Street Fairness Act" and it would result in everyone but Wall Street getting raped financially.