First, it will never pass. Defazio, whose bill it is, is at war with Obama's staff as of this week. War. Obama pulled Defazio aside apparently and said, "we're keeping score you know . . . "
This was apparently on an unrelated issue, but Defazio has been beating up on O'man. The fact that it's his bill is the biggest negative for it ever passing. It has no chance whatsoever. That being said, the penny stock thing is a zero sum game.
Buy 25,000 wxyz at .60 and pay .003 round trip tax. If it goes up 10% to .66 you make $1425. Penny stocks are below $1 for a reason. They are normally distressed companies, often hard to borrow.
Buy 215 XOM at $70 and pay .35 cents round trip tax. 10% gain or $7 would net you $1425.
It goes off of principal amount. Both these trades were $15,000 in principal. It's the same $37.5 per trade, or $75 round trip no matter how you look at it. Zero sum game.
I in fact would lean more towards higher priced, high beta names if it were in fact law. With something like BIDU or GOOG at least you have movement. Buy 25,000 of a penny stock and you may watch it for days before it moves one way or the other. IMHO.