Austrian FM says no FTT before 2017 at the earliest and admits it may not happen at all.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/08/eu-tax-idUSL9N0T403I20150508
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/08/eu-tax-idUSL9N0T403I20150508
My guess is that the tax will happen. The general public hates traders and thinks people who speculate are worthless and evil. The government thinks trading (like poker) is a complete waste of the work force. The big rub is that large institutional traders will probably get to skirt such a tax, at least to some degree.
Does this tax make it impossible to be a profitable at home trader? Either swing trading or day trading?
Like if the volume goes down, and the spread increase, as such the volatility would also increase so that would mean more potential profit, no?
It's difficult to say until the tax happens. Exactly what they might tax, who, and how much is up in the air. There may be a way to trade around the issue. Frequent trading may no longer be profitable for example, but infrequent trading may still be profitable. Many of the most successful hedge funds in the world do not actually participate in high frequency trading. I do see a future where most speculation is outlawed because traders are (rightly or wrongly) blamed for some worldwide crash, but I think that is decades away. There are a lot of risks in this business. The biggest risk of all is that the business will become obsolete and you will have wasted 10 or 20 years of your life.