Comment Text:
i0-001
COMMENT
CL-03209
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Jon Doozan
Saturday, January 23, 2010 10:42 AM
secretary
Regulation of Retail Forex
To Whom This May Concern:
I was immensely disturbed when I read that CFTC is planning to restrict leverage in
retail forex customer accounts. [] It is my hope that this proposal will be soundly
rejected.
I first of all want to express my gratitude for the intent of the measure[]to protect
investors. [] As an investor, I am indebted to CFTC for their oversight of the market and
desire to prevent unscrupulous brokers from taking advantage of people. [] The use of
leverage with retail forex accounts, however, is not a situation that CFTC needs to
regulate.
One of the primary issues I would like to point out regarding this measure is:[] retail
forex customers are individuals who can and must take responsibility for our
decisions. [] We
know
that the forex market is volatile. [] We
know
that the misuse of
leveraging puts us at great risk of wiping out our account.[] An investor who chooses to
misuse the blessing of leverage should not be []protected[] from his/her poor decision
at the expense of the rest of us who trade wisely. [] This leads me to the second issue I
would like the Board to consider.
Limiting the amount of leverage in the forex market would be financially devastating for
the majority of retail forex customers. [] Like me, many forex customers are not
wealthy. [] We are common people who seek a good return for our hard-earned
money. [] We have found the forex market, when traded wisely, to be an incredible
investment opportunity precisely
because
of the great leverage brokers are able to
offer. [] We have learned to judiciously use this leverage to our advantage--even finding
our relatively small investments in this market to supplement or become our sole
source of income. []As such, we would be very disappointed by the drastic reduction in
the amount of leverage our brokers could provide.[] Our trading habits would have to
become far more risky in order to achieve the same returns as before.
Finally, if the Board still feels that too many investors are misusing the leverage in the
retail forex market, I would suggest alternate means of alleviating this problem. []
Introducing margin calls to the forex market or requiring that investors undergo an
educational overview before beginning to trade are just a couple of ideas.
I sincerely hope, most of all, that reason would prevail and the proposal to limit retail
forex leverage would be rejected.
Respectfully,
Jonathan Doozan