Feb. 7, 2024
Hello, I am sending this message to oppose the rule change by the Options Clearing Corporation concerning its process for adjusting certain parameters in its proprietary system for calculating margin requirements during periods when the products it clears and the markets it serves experience high volatility. This is criminal and should not be allowed. There is not enough transparency in the market as it is and allowing rules like this in absolutely NO way helps create a free and fair market. I already believe that the U.S. Stock Market is the world's largest casino. Buying calls or puts, especially on margin, is GAMBLING. I've always been told not to gamble with anything I couldn't afford to lose. That means I don't place bets with money that I need to pay my bills, like my mortgage, electric, water, gas, or phone bills. This rule essentially gives a market maker or hedge fund a bailout because they made a bad bet with their mortgage and are now having their home foreclosed on them. Would anyone else be afforded this bailout? I'm $45,000.00 dollars in debt as I write this. Do I get to apply for more credit cards because I have maxed out the ones I have? Do I get to get a higher balance until I can get back on my feet? Absolutely NOT. If I'm over leveraged, I lose my house, my truck, my job, all of my personal belongings, everything. If these hedge funds and market makers are over leveraged, who are using other peoples' retirement funds and pensions to place their bets, and who have 65 BILLION DOLLARS in securities SOLD but NOT YET PURCHASED, they get a pass? This is Bernie Madoff fleecing the system all over again. That led to one of the largest financial implosions in history, and if this rule change is allowed, the SEC is only condoning this to happen again. This is NOT what a FAIR and FREE market looks like, and why as a concerned retail investor I strongly OPPOSE this rule change. Respectfully Submitted, Michael P Honaker