I've been trading and investing for nearly ten years. This is not the first time I've seen proposed restrictions to leverage ETF trading. I'm disappointed to see this coming up again. The last time it appeared was around the same time the crypto market was starting. Given the size, mess, and potential for fraud and chaos that crypto is presenting I find it infuriating that FINRA is spending its time trying to remove access to trading leveraged ETF's.
I'm a long term buy-and-infrequently-adjust holder of 2x and 3x ETF's and have been throughout the recent stock market sell-off, as well as through the COVID crash. At neither time did I panic, become overleveraged, sell at the bottom, or otherwise have any problems with these ETF's. They are fine, they work exactly as expected and as advertised. If an investor is qualified by their broker to have access to margin trading, then there should be no restriction on allowing them to access leveraged products. Regulations should be more firmly in place and enforced on brokers who let anyone access margin trading without being properly cognizant of the risks involved. Robinhood, for example, needs some attention in this regard. Restricting access to leveraged ETF's feels like banning cars because some people drive at 150mph and crash: very inconvenient for the rest of us driving around at the posted speed limits.
In summary, please stop wasting everyone's time with this nonsense. Brokers should have a mandated responsibility to protecting investors from themselves, not the market or the market regulators. Most brokers do quite a good job of this. The newer gamified app-based ones, not so much. And then there's the whole other lawless void of the crypto markets. Both harder to regulate and I guess that's why we're here, digging up this moribund issue again.
Phil Brown Comment On Regulatory Notice 22-08
I've been trading and investing for nearly ten years. This is not the first time I've seen proposed restrictions to leverage ETF trading. I'm disappointed to see this coming up again. The last time it appeared was around the same time the crypto market was starting. Given the size, mess, and potential for fraud and chaos that crypto is presenting I find it infuriating that FINRA is spending its time trying to remove access to trading leveraged ETF's.
I'm a long term buy-and-infrequently-adjust holder of 2x and 3x ETF's and have been throughout the recent stock market sell-off, as well as through the COVID crash. At neither time did I panic, become overleveraged, sell at the bottom, or otherwise have any problems with these ETF's. They are fine, they work exactly as expected and as advertised. If an investor is qualified by their broker to have access to margin trading, then there should be no restriction on allowing them to access leveraged products. Regulations should be more firmly in place and enforced on brokers who let anyone access margin trading without being properly cognizant of the risks involved. Robinhood, for example, needs some attention in this regard. Restricting access to leveraged ETF's feels like banning cars because some people drive at 150mph and crash: very inconvenient for the rest of us driving around at the posted speed limits.
In summary, please stop wasting everyone's time with this nonsense. Brokers should have a mandated responsibility to protecting investors from themselves, not the market or the market regulators. Most brokers do quite a good job of this. The newer gamified app-based ones, not so much. And then there's the whole other lawless void of the crypto markets. Both harder to regulate and I guess that's why we're here, digging up this moribund issue again.
Please do better!