Comment Text:
i0-001
COMMENT
CL-01969
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
George Thorsen
Thursday, January 21, 2010 4:16 PM
secretary
[email protected]
Regulation of Retail Forex, RIN 3038-AC61
Dear Mr. Stawick,
When I heard of the CFTC's proposed regulation to drastically reduce the leverage on retail forex trading from
100:1 down to 10:1, I was both shocked and appalled. I have been a retail trader for many years, trading forex
for the past 10 years. I am a small trader who is retired and simply trying to derive additional income from my
trading. I am quite conservative, and have never traded over the 100:1 ratio. At this ratio, I am able to make a
small amount of 'risk capital' generate a reasonable amount of additional income for my retirement years. To
finalize such a proposed reduction in leverage would literally 'put me out of business', along with many, many
other retail forex traders who do not have lots of risk capital available.
In our free society, I believe that our Founding Fathers had fully intended for each of us to be able to assume
whatever risks we deem appropriate in pursuit of our income goals. This proposed leverage limitation would take
away our 'freedom to choose' the levels of risk we are willing to assume. The 100:1 leverage in retail forex
trading is the main reason I have chosen this vehicle. Otherwise, I could not afford to engage in these activities.
To be required to put-up 10 times my current amount of risk capital is a true threat to my ability to derive income
from trading...and essentially put me 'out of a job', without any 'unemployment compensation'. If you want to
penalize somebody, then please stick it to the hedge fund scammers, or others who have bilked many people out
of millions of dollars...not the small, independent trader who's simply trying to risk a reasonable amount
of capital to leverage a fair potential return.
When the current administration is saying that it is trying to create new jobs, why does the CFTC think it should
impose such restrictive conditions on private traders/investors, thus putting them out of business? To put $2,500
at risk to produce a thousand dollars a month income is reasonable. But to potentially need to come up with
$25,000 to produce this same amount of monthly income, skews the reward-to-risk ratio way out of sync for the
independent trader. Please do not allow this to happen. I'm sure that there are many other traders who feel the
same as I do, but may not write such a letter to you to voice their outrage. But believe me, we are watching such
restrictive governance quite closely and will take this observance to the election polls during the coming months,
and our voices will be heard. I am sending copies of this letter to President Obama, as well as, our elected federal
officials from the State of Florida. This is way too an important issue to let it go unprotested.
The American capitalist system is one where freedom of choice has played out very successfully over our long
history. Regardless of your political leanings, please do not jeopardize our freedom to choose our level of
risk. This should be our decision...not the government's choice. In the end, this kind of thinking and
behavior could put our whole economic system at even greater risk. I hope you will be more careful in
your consideration of this matter. Laissez-faire, s'il vous plait
Respectfully,
George H. Thorsen
Independent Forex Trader
[email protected]
