Comment Text:
i0-001
COMMENT
CL-07378
From:
Sent:
To:
Cc:
Subject:
Joel Erickson
Saturday, March 13, 2010 5:45 PM
secretary
[email protected]
Regulation of Retail Forex
RIN 3038-AC61
Dear Mr. Stawick,
I have been trading in the foreign currency market for about four years now. One of the things
that drew me to the market was the degree of leverage that one was able to take advantage of. If
used correctly it can be very powerful.
I am writing to express my concern with the proposed regulation that would decrease this
leverage. Recently legislation made 100:1 leverage the maximum for a trader in the U.S. I was
not opposed to this change since it had no real impact on my current trading strategy. When I
learned of a possible change to the leverage that would make the maximum only 10:1 I nearly had
a heart attack. I was flabbergasted as to why it seemed necessary to decrease the leverage even
further and that the proposed leverage would only be a TENTH of the previous number.
I realize that this is largely to protect inexperienced investors who lose large sums of money in a
market that is new to them, but I believe they must be trusted with some degree of responsibility.
It is common knowledge even to the most inexperienced trader that the currency market is risky
and they are free to choose the 10:1 leverage if they choose to do so. Eliminating the 100:1
leverage option would be disastrous to my current strategy with which I have been very
successful. For a small time trader like myself who can only trade with a few thousand dollars it is
vital part of the equation. If they leverage were decreased to 10:1 I believe I would stop trading all
together. It simply wouldn't be worth it.
Thank you for hearing my opinion on the matter.
Sincerely,
Joel Erickson, Idaho
