March 10, 2020
Dear SEC,
I am disturbed by the proposed burdensome regulations on leveraged and inverse etf funds. These investment vehicles are extremely useful for many investor to reduce risks through hedging in volatile markets such as the ones we find ourselves in today (3/9/20). It is condescending to assume that only people of certain wealth and income-level can understand these investment vehicles and apply them safely.
To give you and example -- today (3/9), when the market tumbled more than 7%, I was able to minimize my losses to less than 1% by applying inverse sp500 ETFs and by buying leveraged gold positions. Without these tools -- I would not have been able to save my IRAs from tumbling with the market
There are already so many more and better investment options open to the ultra-rich. And these options are already denied to the middle-class and the poor. It is unfair.
The proposed rules would take these already meager tools out of the hands of individual investors and place them into the hands of managed funds -- some of the same actors that gave us the great recession -- I would be forced to buy managed funds with some hedging behaviors that I might desire (on paper). I don't feel any safer with them managing my money in these opaque funds.
I am sure that you are also well aware that on average these managed funds do less well over time than just simple index funds. If I want to hedge my risks and earn a return -- why on earth would I want an active manager that I've never met, on the other side of the country do this without my input or knowledge?
Please reconsider any regulation that would limit my rights as a free person to invest with my own money. I still want to invest in inverse and leverage ETFs in a free market. Thank you and