I am a small retail investor, I only trade settled funds and never speculate more than I can afford to lose. To me the idea of margins are that they are an insurance that that gamblers pay for playing with money they cannot afford to lose, quite often this is borrowed money. If margins are the guardrails to ensure market stability, it seems ludicrous to lower those guardrails at the very time when the speed on the track is accelerating. A venal situation also exists where a single individual decides who and how margins are levied. This individual is allowed to make these decisions without public reasoning. Furthermore since the public isn't informed who is receiving preferential margin requirements until weeks after the fact, honest market participants are competing at a disadvantage.