Specifically - sell side prop traders.The thing is, what specific impact has Dodd Frank had on you (not you specifically but anyone here who is sure it's killing us all)? So GS has to hire a couple extra compliance lawyers, cry me a river. The commissions we all pay have steadily gone down, and I pay less for trading now with better execution that in 2008, so none of the supposedly crushing burden of Dodd Frank has been passed down to traders like us. Seems the banks are still uber profitable as well, so obviously not hurting their bottom line. Who is being harmed by Dodd Frank again, and very specifically how?
BTW, I agree that the small financial institutions being subject to big bank rules is bad policy, fine with repealing that. Repealing a requirement that retirement planners act in the best interest of their clients is just absurd though.
Edit: If you want to help a client by trading with him, getting his trade done, giving him what he wants, while taking on some risk yourself to fill his order, you now have to show, more than ever that you were doing the trade for the client, and not risking the banks money at all. Previously you could show a client a two way price, skew your quote in the direction you wanted to go as a prop trader / market maker, and get trades done that made sense for the client, and for the bank - ideally banking some p/l, and marking the trade to the same model you quoted off.
Now you have to show that the trade was for the client, basically at the expense of the bank, maybe charging a fee to the client, rather than making him a price indicating what you're willing to do. Then if you do actually get the trade, the commission is assigned to a knuckle dragging sales trader, and the prop book is more or less p/l flat .. after that your trade is marked to a model dreamed up by an overseas quant who's more compliance guy than trader, and the reported mark to market is all over the shop.
In essence, Frank Dodd is a t00l.
It's made institutional trading feel like a kindergarten in many ways. The prop trader / market maker who's supposed to quote prices, is now quoting compliance voodoo prices, and everyone's confused.
Last edited: