February 20, 2020
Dear SEC,
I've been investing for over 30 years in stocks, stock indexes, bonds, options, futures, and futures options. As my portfolio has grown over the years, I now focus mainly on stock ETFs as they allow me to increase my returns with improved risk management. Leveraged ETFs are a crucial part of my investments, with funds like TQQQ and SQQQ being essential to my core strategy - one that I developed personally through exhaustive research and backtesting -that provides regular income for my retirement. Additionally, the use of leveraged and inverse funds are allowing my college-attending children to use the money they have worked for, saved and invested to substantially pay for their college expenses.
Leveraged and inverse funds are an essential component of modern investing, whether for seeking greater returns or being an effective hedge. Anyone who opens a brokerage account must be aware of the "inherent risks of investing" and other warnings that are in virtually every disclaimer on every investment page/article one reads. Anyone venturing into leveraged and inverse funds, as with any other fund, stock or option, is ultimately responsible for investigating what it is they are buying. We learn to read in elementary school we can read a prospectus and about the risks of leveraged trading. Having a third party like the SEC evaluating what investors like me can buy is not helpful at all - you are simply proposing to make it more difficult to use my best tools. And at what point does it start/stop? Are you willing to pay me what I could have made through leveraged purchases, and reimburse me for what I could have prevented through leveraged hedging? If I have a great new idea/strategy to test or implement, that only I really understand or see opportunity in, why should I not be completely free to give it a go? I do not want the SEC limiting what we as investors have been historically free to do with our money.
Every investment carries with it a degree of risk, and it is ultimately up to the investor to determine if the risk/reward ratio is in balance with their investment plan. Even working with a professional advisor comes with its own risks and rewards.
Please keep the public markets free to allow every investor to make his/her own investment decisions without any government-imposed limitations on our investment choices.