Mar. 17, 2020
Comment on SEC Proposed Rule #S7-24-15: Consider the likelihood of both social security & Medicare running out of money without new tax revenue in the near future. It is FAR MORE IMPORTANT to encourage retail investors to make use of these instruments. You can do that by enforcing that brokers both online, over the phone, or in person alert the investor on the best strategies for using them. Ex. SOXS is roughly $30/sh. SOXL is roughly $165/sh. That's roughly a 1:5 ratio. Say a retail investor wants to convert his IRA into these 2 positions. Say he has enough to buy 500 sh of SOXL & 2500 sh of SOXS. That's roughly $158K. I would say most Americans who have an IRA have that much. SOXL's 52wk high is $331 & SOXS 52wk low is $16.20. When those points are reached again The SOXL will be worth $166K & the SOXS worth $40.5K. That's $207K or a net gain of 31%! That's enough to cover the penality if the person should have to tap into their IRA earlier. Furthermore, if such a person has access to options they could use uncovered puts for SOXS & covered calls for SOXL to both increase their gains & limit their losses. IMHO, the SEC should make it simpler & easier for investors to use these ETFs. That means getting rid of the stiff margin requirements in margin accounts. If an investor is being alerted of both the risks & strategies every time they make such a trade the stiff margin requirements are not needed.