Quote from newtricks:
You don't think that HFT/Algo is going to destroy the business anyway?
HTT and algos are a running business. Their capital gains will be taxed after all like any other income.
You destroy this business then you'll have nothing at all.
And there are still more people/traders than algos trading.
Stupids just blame anything for something they cannot understand.
And those stupids are either people who have never traded themselves, or they do and lose because they lack in skills and knowledge of this business.
Nobody is forced to trade or to invest. And everybody who does does so voluntarily, and knows about the risks. Otherwise he/she should stay out of the markets.
This is just witch hunt.
Sweden had a tobin tax years ago. And guess why they gave it up. Back then there weren't so many algos.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_...e_form_of_general_financial_transaction_taxes
Sweden's experience in implementing Tobin taxes in the form of general financial transaction taxesIn July, 2006, analyst Marion G. Wrobel examined the actual international experiences of various countries in implementing financial transaction taxes.[43] Wrobel's paper highlighted the Swedish experience with financial transaction taxes. In January 1984, Sweden introduced a 0.5% tax on the purchase or sale of an equity security. Thus a round trip (purchase and sale) transaction resulted in a 1% tax. In July 1986 the rate was doubled. In January 1989, a considerably lower tax of 0.002% on fixed-income securities was introduced for a security with a maturity of 90 days or less. On a bond with a maturity of five years or more, the tax was 0.003%.
The revenues from taxes were disappointing; for example, revenues from the tax on fixed-income securities were initially expected to amount to 1,500 million Swedish kroner per year. They did not amount to more than 80 million Swedish kroner in any year and the average was closer to 50 million.[44]
In addition, as taxable trading volumes fell, so did revenues from capital gains taxes, entirely offsetting revenues from the equity transactions tax that had grown to 4,000 million Swedish kroner by 1988.[45]
On the day that the tax was announced, share prices fell by 2.2%. But there was leakage of information prior to the announcement, which might explain the 5.35% price decline in the 30 days prior to the announcement. When the tax was doubled, prices again fell by another 1%. These declines were in line with the capitalized value of future tax payments resulting from expected trades. It was further felt that the taxes on fixed-income securities only served to increase the cost of government borrowing, providing another argument against the tax.
Even though the tax on fixed-income securities was much lower than that on equities, the impact on market trading was much more dramatic.
During the first week of the tax, the volume of bond trading fell by 85%, even though the tax rate on five-year bonds was only 0.003%. The volume of futures trading fell by 98% and the options trading market disappeared. On 15 April 1990, the tax on fixed-income securities was abolished. In January 1991 the rates on the remaining taxes were cut in half and by the end of the year they were abolished completely. Once the taxes were eliminated, trading volumes returned and grew substantially in the 1990s.
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"Geh arbeiten du soziale Sau!" just joking
