If the "Trading Tax" is Passed

[slapshot]

Quote from tmarket:

Absolutely serious. If they had taxed 20% on Credit Default Swap notable value, the investment banks would not have taken so much leverage and they won't have collapsed and the tax payers will not be on the hook for $8 Trillion.

If they had additional tax of $1 on gasoline, the blow off top on the oil speculative run up would have been over much sooner as the consumer realized the games being played and demanded action from an administration zealous on deregulation on Enron and oil and gas.

So what you are saying is that higher government taxes help to regulate markets and prevent wrongdoers?

Give me some of what you are smokin'.

 

[Wayne Gibbous]

Quote from Rex84:

I pay $8 a trade, what is the big deal if I pay $8.05 a trade? It isn't taxing the "crap" out of my or anyone else's trading account. It would raise some nice revenues for the gov. and it wouldn't hurt me or anyone. A tax of 1/4% would kill day traders who normally ony mike a sixteenth of a point a trade.

Wrong. They aren't proposing a 1/4% of the commission tax, it's 1/4% of the value of the TRADE! You buy 2000 shares of a $50 stock and it's 1/4% of $100K. Or a nice little $500 + commission for a round trip.

Still sound like a great idea?

 

[mike007]

It's still a good thing that the people with money still make the rules in this country. We have nothing to fear.

Nothing like a few million for a political campaign to keep this off the books.

 

[risktaker]

Uuuhhhhhh......

Do you know wtf you're talking about?
Multiply that nickle by 1000 *per trade* and maybe you'd reconsider?!!!

Quote from Rex84:

I pay $8 a trade, what is the big deal if I pay $8.05 a trade? It isn't taxing the "crap" out of my or anyone else's trading account. It would raise some nice revenues for the gov. and it wouldn't hurt me or anyone. A tax of 1/4% would kill day traders who normally ony mike a sixteenth of a point a trade.

 

[Bear Plunger]

Quote from mike007:

It's still a good thing that the people with money still make the rules in this country. We have nothing to fear.

Nothing like a few million for a political campaign to keep this off the books.

I agree with you. This is the same old witchhunt that pops up from time to time in America, when the economy is doing bad - they like to blame the speculators.

When the market was rallying before the crash, were they blaming the speculators then? 'They' have tried anti-speculation attempts in the past, but they quietly get swept under the rug then forgotten.

The potential ramifications could be so serious to the country, I can assure you once a study was conducted on it - it would show that those 'evil speculators' actually provide an invaluable service to the economy. ie. Back-stop for markets in free fall, Liquidity etc..

Anybody on wall street knows that the machine would grind to a halt if the speculators weren't there. If conditions became un-favourable to the speculators - they simply set up shop somewhere else to trade...it's been done in the past.

Anybody interested in a startup in Antarctica?

 

[mike007]

Antarctica? No way, somewhere warm, Bahamas.

 

[urrterrible]

They would make the trade tax as complex as the irs tax codes so that we have to hire someone to decipher it all--more jobs created.

That would just be another service job created we don't need.

 

[krazyanyway]

Quote from Rex84:

I pay $8 a trade, what is the big deal if I pay $8.05 a trade?

If you buy 500 shares of a 10$ stock, 0.25% would be 12.50$, that's hardly 0.05$ ...

 

[Susannah]

Quote from tradersboredom:

the useless brokerages and exchanges would receive a lot less business on fees and commissions.

remember estimated 80% or more of their retail clients lose money trading. people just quit and get real jobs since it's not feasible if trading cost is too high for daytrading

What real jobs? Those have dried up. There are 3.8 unemployed for each opening right now.

 

[Susannah]

Quote from Bear Plunger:

I agree with you. This is the same old witchhunt that pops up from time to time in America, when the economy is doing bad - they like to blame the speculators.

When the market was rallying before the crash, were they blaming the speculators then? 'They' have tried anti-speculation attempts in the past, but they quietly get swept under the rug then forgotten.

The potential ramifications could be so serious to the country, I can assure you once a study was conducted on it - it would show that those 'evil speculators' actually provide an invaluable service to the economy. ie. Back-stop for markets in free fall, Liquidity etc..

Anybody on wall street knows that the machine would grind to a halt if the speculators weren't there. If conditions became un-favourable to the speculators - they simply set up shop somewhere else to trade...it's been done in the past.

Anybody interested in a startup in Antarctica?

Greenland. It's getting warmer there, they're even starting to get able to grow some crops there