Comment Text:
i0-001
COMMENT
CL-01554
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
SFBreton
Thursday, January 21, 2010 5:08 AM
secretary
Regulation of Retail Forex RIN 3038-AC61
To Whom It May Concern:
In regards to your proposal to further limit the amount of leverage on trading accounts used for foreign exchange trading
provided by U.S. brokers and brokerage firms, I wish to register the following statements:
I may be very clear in my statements, but I consider myself reasonably educated and careful in the decisions I make and in
what I undertake and have no problem taking responsibility for my actions and their consequences, good or bad. Personally
it feels like the CFTC is restricting my freedom and ability to pursue a way to make a living and provide for my family by
their proposed regulations limiting leverage to traders in the foreign exchange market. My guess is that by making it harder
to succeed at trading in the foreign exchange market you will cause those traders who are knowledgable and willing to share
their knowledge with others away from trading in the U.S. and end up creating an environment that makes it harder for new
and inexperienced traders to get the training and education necessary to avoid the problems you seem to be trying to prevent.
I doubt you've had adequate time to collect enough information and study it to have any idea of whether all the regulations
you enacted in 2009 had any impact on the problems you seem to be addressing and that introducing further more restrictive
regulations without knowing the result of what you have already done is only going to lead to more problems trading on the
foreign exchange in the U.S., not fewer problems. Even worse, other countries are considering similar regulations without
any real evidence of what the end result is simply because they are blindly following the U.S. instead of asking themselves
why or what they should expect to happen if they do. We pride ourselves in this country on the extent of our freedom to
choose for ourselves, to pursue those activities that we enjoy and the freedom to decide what we do to provide for ourselves
and others. But we now have the most restrictive set of regulatoins and rules than any other nation on earth when it comes to
trading the foreign exchange market. As far as I can tell, no one has even provided a clear and rational explanation of what
these regulations are supposed to be doing to help matters or provide any evidence that they have actually succeeded in wat
they have set out to do in the first place.
Wouldn't it be much better to use our resources to make educatoin and training for new and inexperienced traders rather than
try to prevent or discourage them from trading in the first place? People have a much healthier respect and caution for the
stock market but I think it is only because they are much better informed about not only the risks associated with stocks, but
have a much better idea of the complexity and skills required to succeed in that area than they do the foreign exchange. If
people were as aware of how the foreign exchange market works and the risks that come with it I expect that the number of
traders who are unsuccessful and quit after losing their money that they would take more time to learn about what they are
trying to do and take less chances by trading before they are ready to do it correctly. There will always be losses, even the
best and brightest traders lose regularly while trading and there will be those who will lose a lot to trading who never should
have been trading in the first place. I remember thinking how easy it all looked when I first started trading and how quickly I
learned that it was a lot harder and more complicated than it appeared. I was dismayed to learn that nearly all training is
conducted by individuals and groups privately and that there exists almost no formal institutional educational opportunities
for the foreign exchange market. Because most of everything that happens regarding foreign exchange trading happens
online it is difficult to meet others unlike a classroom experience which makes it even harder to get up to speed in this field
unless you are really motivated and willing to ask for help. There is also a great deal of misinformation floating around out
there and a few who use it to take advantage of others which doesn't help anything either. Other than making it more difficult
to make a living as a trader in this country, I can see no reason why you think further restricting leverage is going to help
solve anything. I expect you don't have any real idea of whether the regulations you have already passed helped improve
anything for traders here and would be hard pressed to show any concrete evidence or studies establishing the consequences
of the regularions recently enacted.
Most people are quite capable of deciding what they want to do for themselves. Even the most careful and reasonable
persons are going to make mistakes and losses are inevitable. As in most areas of employment and career there will be a lot
of people trying to do jobs and tasks that they are not capable of or suited for who will fail and move on to something else,
some more dramatically than others. Even if you prohibit trading by individuals in this day and age there are simply too
many alternatives to really prevent anyone determined to give it a try. Why not try providing an environment encouraging
good trading skills and educating potential traders to do it the right way? I would rather keep my freedom to make the choice
and the possibility of failure rather than have my freedom of choice taken away in an attempt to keep me safe from myself.i0-001
COMMENT
CL-01554
I urge you to reconsider the proposed regulations regarding leverage and to provide the public ~vith a better explanation of
exactly ~vhat you are trying to achieve and sho~ving us the results from earlier regulations and ho~v successful they actually
~vere. I hope you ~vill find more productive ~vays to help traders do a better job at it and encourage schools and educational
institutions to get involved in educating and training people to trade smarter and better. If people ~vere better trained to deal
~vith money and approach it differently ~vhile in school I can't help but believe ~ve'd be in a much better financial situation in
this country than we find ourselves now. Making it harder to learn to do things right will only make it worse than it is now
and rushing into unproven, untested ways of doing things certainly can't be the best way to make things better.
Besides, noting good ever comes from taking possibilities to succeed away from people. We could use a whole lot more
people earning a good living in tis country right now, not making it harder for people to succeed, so aren't you kind of
making things worse instead of better by pursuing the kind of thinking that makes it more diffcult? Think about it.
Winston E. Henley, Jr.
