drayton sawyer Registered: Mar 2010 Posts: 20 11-24-11 06:17 AM ok petrobras, how do you feel that the series 56 benefits a trader or society at large? It sets minimum standards thus preventing people who have no business trading from entering the business i.e. losing their life savings. Certainly there will be a few who has not passed and have done very well and those are exceptions not the rule.
everyone is entitled to their own opinion, i guess we will just have to agree to disagree. In my view, this is America. I do not welcome or respect regulatory bodies making parental decisions on how us "children" are suppose to interact with the free market place. If we are stupid enough to lose our capital, then so be it. passing the series 56 will not help avoiding this fate. We will lose our capital trading with or without the series 56.
another thought is this, if the series 56 was suppose to keep me from losing " my lifes savings," then why was not one single sentence uttered about money management?? Where is the material covering trading psychology and its importance to trading? none of this was mentioned.
this test does not make someone profitable or teach them how to manage risk the only reason we jump through hoops is to have access to more buying power if everyone had the necessary captial then there would be no need to trade prop
I took the series 56 for the first time back in late October and failed after studying a good amount for it and will be retaking later this month. The exam is only difficult due to the insane level of detail that the exam tests, most of which are totally irrelevant to the actual nuts and bolts of equity and options trading. There were multiple questions (at least 10) that were take from like 3-sentence paragraphs on concepts like anti-money laundering, fingerprints, etc. It was pretty unreal. I felt like you basically had to memorize the study guide verbatim in order to have a good shot of passing.
The reason for the new trader license was posted earlier, but in a nutshell: According to several regulatory circulars, the SEC required that traders at CBSX firms be registered, pass the Series 7, and take continuning education. The CBOE made a proposal, representing that CBSX firms' traders "solely engage in proprietary trading" and thus it would create a new exam as an alternative to the Series 7. The SEC accepted the proposal, and thus the CBOE created the Series 56. The irony here is the Series 56 has little to do with trading at a prop firm, and it's not even universally accepted by SROs outside of the CBSX! Whereas at least with the Series 7 a trader could take their license elsewhere and into other facets of the financial industry.
Also: At this pt., I've taken neither exam, but I'm guessing that the available study guides for the 7 vs. the 56 are going to be much more on target for some time to come yet.