Campaign coming from ProShares: A radical and unprecedented threat by regulators could affect your right to buy dozens of popular public investments, including leveraged and inverse funds. Under the regulations being considered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), you may not be able to buy leveraged and inverse funds and dozens of other popular investments deemed to be complex unless you: • Pass a regulator-imposed test of your specialized investment knowledge • Demonstrate a high net worth • Get special approval from your broker • Attest to reading certain materials • Go through “cooling off periods” during which you can’t invest https://www.leteveryoneinvest.com/p...ridge_em_Job1_PSGearedETF&p2asource=GearedETF LIST OF INVESTMENTS THAT MAY BE AT RISK: • Target Date Funds • Non-Traditional Index Funds (Smart Beta + ESG) • Emerging Market Funds • High Yield Bond Funds • Closed-end Funds • Commodity Funds • Cryptocurrency Funds • Unconstrained Bond Funds • Floating-rate/Leveraged Loan Funds • Leveraged/Inverse Products • Interval Funds • Global Real Estate Funds • ETNs • Variable Annuities • Defined Outcome ETFs • Volatility-Linked Funds • Currency Funds • Funds using cryptocurrency futures • Non-traded REITs • Business Development Companies • Opportunistic and Tactical, Multi-Strategy Funds • Funds using derivatives for hedging or leverage • Principal Protected Notes • Structured Notes • Asset-Backed Securities • Funds Selling Short • Start-up Company (IPO) Funds • Funds Investing in Unlisted Securities • Distressed Debt Funds • Absolute Return Funds • Finds of Hedge Funds • Reverse Convertible Notes • Market-linked CDs • Range Accrual Notes • Insurance-Linked Securities https://www.proshares.com/globalassets/proshares/documents/leteveryoneinvest_1.pdf
Requiring people to have a basic understanding a financial instrument before they can begin trading it, sounds pretty reasonable to me. Calling this "radical and unprecedented" is extremely hyperbolic. AFAIK even robinhood requires education before options trading can be enabled. Requiring education is basically fair, unlike requiring a certain amount of money. It's pretty hard to argue that someone who can't pass a test is going to benefit from trading these instruments. Existing capital thresholds for pattern day trader ($25K) and portfolio margin ($100K) are much more radical and unfair in my opinion.
By the way it's telling that this campaign is coming from ProShares. They are worried about their bottom line if every Tom, Dick and Harry can't trade their shitty ETNs and levered products on a whim.
This is more about shifting liability away from the brokers to the investor. This has very little (if anything) to do about protecting the individual investor. The broker is the middle guy. The question is do you need to check a mark when you enter a casino? The answer is no. Because there is no middle man.
Sammybea technically you don't need a middleman to enter a Casino, but some Games use a middleman called a dealer like Poker and Black Jack. Also the casino cashier could be added to that equation.
Too many regulations. Traders should have the freedom to decide whether to trade leveraged products or not.
Thought of the day: under communism there is no middleman . Three cheers for the often maligned middlemen in a capitalist economy.