Good day to all. I am a trader who has been in the business since 86, trading primarily futures and now forex for the past few years. I haven't traded equities in almost 17 years, when the XMI's were the index to trade, but am now seeking to enter the equity fray and see if I can succeed with this as I have with the other stuff. But like I said, it has been sometime, so I spent a good eveing reading thru many of the threads here to try to get some answers to some questions I have. I hope you all can guide me a little bit. What is the importance of being registered? Before you tell me it is to get better leverage, why else? And the leverage thing is not the end all as I have seen firms looking for series 7 bodies offering 20 - 1 leverage and firms offering the same without the licence requirement. There has to be a reason that I don't know. Thanx