In a shocking sign of just how far left Democratic candidates feel they need to go to succeed in the primary, the Bloomberg campaign leaked the candidate's new 'progressive' tax plan to the New York Times: Highlights include a 0.1% transaction tax that many have warned would upend traditional Wall Street business models, tightening Volcker rule regulations (i.e. making it even more difficult for banks to hold large stockpiles of securities on their books), reviving the CFPB and expanding its jurisdiction, while requiring 'too-big-to-fail' banks to hold even more capital in reserve.
Unbelievable. Hard to figure who he's trying to appeal to with that gambit. His own publication has railed against an FTT for years. FTT supporters are fond of saying they want to put an end to high frequency trading. That's bullshit. Just a straw man. What they really want is another source of tax dollars to waste on pet causes.
Hopefully, if it became reality (still unlikely), non-US residents would be able to trade CFDs on US equities or simply trade US equities listed on foreign exchanges. (Brokers would find it difficult to hedge, though, and might increase their prices.) A worrying development.
30 years ago the B/A *spread was that much on a stock. example: $50 stock *.001= 5 cent b/a spread. So today it costs zero commish and maybe you need to again trade with a "5 cent b/a spread" would be one way to look at it....
Does anyone understand how this tax would be applied to a futures contract? For instance, the value of 1 ES right now is around $168,000. If the FTT is .1%, the tax is $168 one way. Is that the way they figure it? Or do they use some other method? If it's the way I just suggested I think that closes down the ES market.
if dems/bloomberg get elected and pass ftt we are all fcked. active trading would die. we need to FIGHT. Re-elect Trump.
I have to admit given Michael Bloomberg's knowledge of financial markets, I am surprised to see him support a financial transaction tax. Maybe I am naive, but I hope this is something the data tells him he needs to support to get elected with no real intention of carrying it out in real life.