I am a retail investor, and have a small part of my IRA accounts that I manage myself, while placing the bulk of the funds into index funds and the like. However, I believe that I should have the right and access to all the same financial instruments that professional investors do for the portion that I manage myself. From time to time, I use leveraged and inverse funds. This are risky and complex investments, and I do not use them regularly, but at times of high volatility, these investments provide opportunities for retail investors to perform the kinds of hedges that larger institutions have always had access to do. I am in complete support of required warnings and explanations; for example, my broker pops up a notice when I buy these funds to remind me about the risks and link me to documents that explain them. This is a fine solution to assure that the public is fully informed about these funds. I even support that institutions need to do further checking about the knowledge of investors before they have access to such funds, just as they all currently do with regard to access to margin accounts and the like. Such rules would be a proportional and reasonable response to the concerns regulators currently have about this investments. Restricting them entirely, though, is merely putting more power back into the hands of big institutions. Please respect retail investors and their permission to participate in investments strategies of their chosing.
Bradley Kuhn Comment On Regulatory Notice 22-08
I am a retail investor, and have a small part of my IRA accounts that I manage myself, while placing the bulk of the funds into index funds and the like. However, I believe that I should have the right and access to all the same financial instruments that professional investors do for the portion that I manage myself. From time to time, I use leveraged and inverse funds. This are risky and complex investments, and I do not use them regularly, but at times of high volatility, these investments provide opportunities for retail investors to perform the kinds of hedges that larger institutions have always had access to do. I am in complete support of required warnings and explanations; for example, my broker pops up a notice when I buy these funds to remind me about the risks and link me to documents that explain them. This is a fine solution to assure that the public is fully informed about these funds. I even support that institutions need to do further checking about the knowledge of investors before they have access to such funds, just as they all currently do with regard to access to margin accounts and the like. Such rules would be a proportional and reasonable response to the concerns regulators currently have about this investments. Restricting them entirely, though, is merely putting more power back into the hands of big institutions. Please respect retail investors and their permission to participate in investments strategies of their chosing.