Quote from Maverick74:
There continues to be a lot of bad information spread around about this mess. The issue here folks is not the series 7. IT'S BEING A MEMBER OF AN EXCHANGE! Most exchanges require you to have a series 7, that is why many on this thread think incorrectly that this is a series7 issue. If you are not a member of an exchange, you cannot get around the PDT rule. This is what sub LLC's have been doing. Allowing non members to gain the benefits of being a member of an exchange. I cannot make this any more clear. I have stated several times there that is one exchange that CURRENTLY does not require a 7 and that is the CBOE. This could change in the future, but as of now, they don't.
What the SEC wants is for professional traders to be MEMBERS. If you want to get the benefits of membership, you have to be a MEMBER. This surely is not that hard to understand.
The reason the SEC wants this is so that they can have regulatory authority over ALL trading activity on the exchanges. This is not a bad thing. If they are going to regulate what Goldman does, shouldn't they also be able to regulate what Don Bright does as well?
Now, having said all that, there are several ways firms are flying in under the radar. One, they are not technically leveraging your account. They still take a deposit, but the money does not go into your trading account. You actually trade out of their master account which is funded by the firm. You fund a seperate account (which could be used to offset losses) that is not used for trading. So technically you are not trading your money, you are trading THEIR money. On top of that they do not give you 100% of your profits. They give you 90% or 75% or 50%, etc. Since you are not getting 100% of your profits, this is not a retail account.
Now is that all legal? Well, again, if it's done as a BD or as an OSJ yes, if the entity is just a sub-LLC of a BD then probably not.
What the SEC is trying to do here guys is have everyone play by the same rules and to have everyone under the scrutiny of some kind of regulatory authority. Everyone should be playing by the same rules.
Prop firms are not going to go away. Neither are LLC's. Neither is leveraged trading going away. It's very simple, join a prop firm that is a legit BD and exchange member and become a member of an exchange. If that exchange requires you to get a series 7, then get it. If it does not require you to get a series 7, then you don't need it. Once you are a member of an exchange and you are trading for a firm that is a member, then you are allowed the benefits of exchange membership which includes exchange margins.