CFTC Proposes 10:1 Leverage Cap on Retail FX

[Black Knight]

 
Yes, unfortunately you read that right.  As if the imposition of all the silly restrictions last year on hedging, trading CFDs, and what order you close your trades in wasn't enough, the CFTC is now setting new standards in idiocy by proposing a 10:1 cap on leverage for retail FX.  Why?  Because the less attractive they make spot forex for you, the more likely you are to switch to trading futures.  And we all know that both the CFTC and the NFA exist to further the interests of futures brokers not retail traders.

You can read more about the proposal at the following links:
http://www.cftc.gov/newsroom/generalpressreleases/2010/pr5772-10.html
http://www.forexfactory.com/news.php?do=news&id=215919

And for some tips on how to fight it while there is still time:
http://www.forexcrunch.com/act-against-the-cftc-110-leverage-proposal
http://www.forexfactory.com/news.php?do=news&id=216076

Fortunately for the poor souls who live in the United States, there exist some offshore trading alternatives such as FXCM UK  and Deutsche Bank .  Keep in mind that the NFA's enforcement authority extends to your place of residence, not citizenship.  So you can also easily incorporate an offshore company or trust, or simply use the address of a relative or friend (you will need to send a bill or credit card statement there with your name on it, as this is often required when opening a new account).  Using an offshore broker gets you past the hedging, FIFO, and leverage restrictions, but you will need a foreign address in order to trade CFDs (even with an offshore broker).  Some brokers who offer CFDs such as FxPro have simply stopped taking on clients with U.S. addresses.  This is how far this lunacy has gone.

[Streetpips]

hahahaha lol I'm not going to cuss or swear this time because I already had a plan from juststreet those guy are idiots, a general that has not plans shall surely be defeated I've read Sung tsuz's book more than once and I will be fine with 1:100 with hedging capabilities I told you BK-San they can't stop me I'm to smart in these streets + I have a father upstairs thet cant touch BK- THANKS alot for keeping us informed of these guys

[::EX::]

BK

when the time comes for the small guy to have the opportunity and avail it on the bases of ability these regulators jump in. All these years when these banks and others were making a killing and ripped people off the street no one paid attention and now...anyways, I am too little for them to fight for it. What we can do is find alternatives and or adapt to the new change but why for the retail trader? I think so they see more and more people getting out of this corporate structure and becoming independent and free...they just don't like it/ cant take it anymore. They just want people to move and live like slaves for the governments and.... THIS IS WHAT IS CALLED FREEDOM (Bill Of Rights).

What about the institutional trader?

The regulation will only effect the traders here in USA correct? Moving out of USA will solve this issue or still no (for US Citizens)?

10:1 is ridiculous: They should not let it go through....I am going to send in a letter by mail.

Lets see what 2010 brings for new traders like me that still have to achieve their success.

Also, will this regulation effect me if I move to Canada?


Thank you BK

[paulintoronto]

Hello fellow traders,

Everyone should be furious about controls such as these which are designed to prevent the average person from accumulating disposable income and becoming debt free.  This sort of thing has been happening since the beginning of human kind where the ruling class, be it politicians, bankers, royalty or the rich, have put in place measures to ensure their wealth continues to increase while preventing the average citizen from doing the same.  This is done by high taxation, high interest rates, high utility, commodity prices, or corporations not sharing their profits equitably with employees, etc.  

How many people do you know are living debt free or with very little debt?  The vast majority have significant debt which will take most of their lives to pay it off, if at all.

We may live in a free country,  but the reality is, we exist in a debt based society, where most of its citizens will have to work all of their lives, give up their youth, to become debt free.  This is not freedom, but slavery... slavery to debt, engineered by very wealthy and powerful individuals to ensure that they and their heirs continue their elitist dominion.

Did you know that at one time it was illegal to own gold in the US?

So the bottom line is, regulations and restrictions such as these, will continue.  

It's obvious that people need to find ways to become debt free as soon as possible, and Forex trading is one way to accomplish this goal.

I highly recommend the following DVD documentaries for a very good explanation of the banking system, past and present.  It will enlighten you, shock you and piss you off. ( No one likes to be a pawn )

Ultimately, it will probably solidify your resolve to become a competent forex trader and work towards being debt free.

1/  The Money Masters ( very well researched )

The 3hr video can be viewed here ..... thanks for the link BK.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936#

2/  Capitalism:  A Love Story, by Michael Moore


3/  Fiat Empire
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5232639329002339531&ei=xP5WS-TuIN-Blgfaz7zoBw&q=fiat+empire#


Below are my notes on The Money Masters ......

Since 1864, we (USA) have had a debt based banking system.  All our money is based on government debt.
 
The talk of paying off our (United States) national debt without first reforming the bank system is an impossibility.
 
The Federal Reserve is a deception.  It is not Federal and there is no reserve. It is no more federal than Federal Express.  
 
It is a private bank owned by private stockholders run purely for their private profit.  It was named "Federal Reserve" in order to hide the fact that it was privately controlled.
 
"The financial system...has been turned over to ...... the Federal Reserve Board.  That board administers the finance system by authority of ........ a purely profiteering group.  The system is private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money."  
----- Rep.  Charles A. Lindberg (R-MN)
 
 
"We have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known.  I refer to the Federal Reserve Board....This evil institution has impoverished ...... the people of the United States ...... and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through ...... the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it."
----- Rep.  Louis T. McFadden (R-PA)
 
"Most Americans have no real understanding of the international moneylenders....  The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited.  It operates outside the control of Congress and..... manipulates the credit of the United States."
----- Sen. Barry Goldwater  (R-AZ)
 
"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance."
-------  James Madison
 
 
Here is the solution...
 
" I sincerely believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.  The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs."
----- Thomas Jefferson
 
In 1913, US Congress gave an independent central bank, deceptively name " The Federal Reserve" a monopoly over issuing America's money ..... and the debt generated by this quasi-private corporation is what is killing the American economy.
 
Fractional Reserve banking - loaning out many times more money than you have assets on deposit
 
Every bank in the US is allowed to loan out at least 10 times more money than they actually have.
 
In the middle ages, Canon law, the law of the Catholic church, forbade charging interest on loans.   The purpose of money was to serve the members of society needed to facilitate the exchange of goods needed to lead a virutous life.  Interest in their belief, hindered this purpose by putting an unnecessary burden on the use of money.  In other words, interest was contrary to reason and justice.
 
WE NEED CENTRAL BANKS, JUST NOT IN PRIVATE HANDS.
 
"In the Colonies we issue our own money.  It is called Colonial Scrip.  We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumer.  In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one."
-------  Benjamin Franklin
 
 
** "Today, economists try to sell the idea that recessions and depressions are a natural part of something they call "the business cycle", the truth is, our money supply is manipulated now just as it was, before and after the civil war.  How does money become scarce, simple, bank loans are called in, and no new ones are given.
 
Whosoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce.... And when you realise that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate." ------ President James Garfield, 1881
 
A few weeks after making this statement, then President James Garfield was assassinated on July 2, 1881.
 
 
RE:  the bill founding the Federal Reserve.....
 
" The ....bill grants just what Wall Street and the big banks for twenty-five years have been striving for - private instead of public control of currency.
 
It ( the Glass-Owen bill ) does this as completely as the Aldrich Bill.  Both measures rob the government and the people of all effective control over the public's money, and vest in the banks exclusively the dangerous power to make money among the people scarce or plenty."
------------  Alfred Crozier - Ohio Attorney
 
Despite the charges of deceit and corruption by various Senators, the Glass-Owen bill (approving the formation of the Federal Reserve ), was snuck through the Senate on Dec. 22, 1913, after most Senators had left town for the holidays, after having been assured by the leadership that nothing would be done until long after the Christmas recess.
 
On the day the bill was passed, Congressman Lindbergh prophetically warned:
 
"This Act establishes the most gigantic trust on earth.  When the President signs this bill, the invisible government by the Monetary Power will be legalized.  The people may not know it immediately, but the day of reckoning is only a few years removed... The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking bill."
-----------  Rep. Charles Lindbergh (R-MN)
 
On top of all this, only weeks earlier, Oct. 13, 1913, Congress had finally passed a bill legalizing income tax.  Why was the income tax bill important, because bankers finally had in place a system which would run up a virtually unlimited federal debt.
 
How would the interest on this debt be repaid, never mind the principal?  Remember, a privately owned Central Bank, creates the principal out of nothing.  The federal government was small then, up to then, it had subsisted merely on tariffs and excise taxes.
 
No, just as with the Bank of England, the interest payments had to be guaranteed by direct taxation of the people.
 
In 1895 the Supreme Court had found a similar income tax law to be unconstitutional.  As a result, Sentor Aldridge hustled a bill for a constitutional amendment, allowing income tax through the congress.
 
The 16th amendment may not be legal, as some critics claim that the bill was never ratified by the necessary three quarters of the states.
 
"To cause high prices, all the Federal Reserve Board will do will be to lower the rediscount rate..., producing an expansion of credit and a raising stock market;  then when ...... business men are adjusted to these conditions, it can check ..... prosperity in mid-career by arbitrarily raising the rate of interest.
 
" It can cause the pendulum of a rising and falling market to swing gently back and forth by slight changes in the discount rate, or cause violent fluctuations by a greater rate variation, and in either case it will possess inside information as to financial conditions and advance knowledge of the coming change, either up or down.
 
"This is the strangest, most dangerous advantage ever placed in the hands of a special privilege class by any Government that ever existed.
 
"The system is private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money.
 
"They know in advance when to create panics to their advantage.  They also know when to stop panic.  Inflation and deflation work equally well for them when they control finance....."
 
-------------  Rep.  Charles Lindbergh (R-MN)
 
The Federal Reserve act brought about....." A super-state controlled by international bankers and international industrialists acting together to enslave the world for their won pleasure."
------  Rep. Louis McFadden (D-PA)
 
"In the United States today we have in effect two governments... We have the duly consitituted Government.... Then we have an independent, uncontrolled and uncoordinated government in the Federal Reserve System, operating the money powers which are reserved to Congress by the Constitution."
--------  Rep. Wright Patman (D-TX)
 
"If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill.  The element that makes the bond good, makes the bill good, also.  The difference between the bond and the bill is the bond lets money brokers collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20%, whereas the currency pays nobody but those who contribute directly in some useful way.
 
It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30 million in bonds and not $30 million in currency.  Both are promises to pay, but one promise fattens the usurers (money lender), and the other helps the people."
------- Thomas Edison
 
So finally, the money changers, those who profit by manipulating the amount of money in circulation had their privately owned Central Bank in America.  The major newspapers, which they also owned, hailed passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
 
Now it was time for a war.  Of course to the central bankers, the political issues of a war don't matter nearly as much as the profit potential.  And nothing creates debts, like warfare.
 
In WW1, the German Rothchilds loaned money to the Germans, the British Rothchilds loaned money to the British, and the French Rothchilds loaned money to the French.
 
In America, JP Morgan was the sales agent of war materials for both the British and the French.  It is estimated that JP Morgan made over $200 million in profits directly related to WW1.
 
Now that the money changers controlled national economies individually, the next step was the ultimate form of consolidation, World Government.  The New World Government proposal was given top priority at the Paris Peace conference after WW1, it was called the League of Nations.  However, the world was not yet ready to dissolve national boundaries.  Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary, called the League of Nations, " a good joke."
 
"These International bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of these papers to club into submission or drive out of public office officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government."
------- Theodore Roosevelt
 
"The Federal Reserve definitely caused the Great Depression by contracting the amount of currency in circulation by one-third from 1929 to 1933."
------  Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist
 
Franklin D. Roosevelt outlawed the ownership of gold @ $20.66 per ounce, supposedly for the public benefit......thus Fort Knox ( 40 miles S/W of Louisville, Kentucky ) was born.  At the end of WW2, Fort Knox had nearly 70% of all the world's gold or 700 million ounces.
 
The largest holder of gold is now the IMF ( International Monetary Fund, 700 19th St., New York ), it and Central Banks control two thirds of the world's gold supply.  Remember, he who has the gold makes the rules.
 
Why are we over our heads in debt?
Because we are labouring under a debt money system that is designed and controlled by private bankers.
 
Within the first 25 years of its existence the Fed caused 3 major economic downturns, including the Great Depression, and for the last 30 years, has shepherded the American economy into a period of unprecedented  inflation.  This is a well known fact among top economists.
 
"The stock of money, prices and output was decidedly more unstable after the establishment of the Reserve System than before.  The most dramatic period of instability in output was, of course, the period between the two wars, which includes the severe ( monetary ) contractions of 1920-21, 1929-33, and 1937-38.  No other 20-year period in American history contains as many as three such severe contractions.
 
"This evidence persuades me that at least a third of the price rise during and just after World War 1 is attributable to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System .... and that the severity of each of the major contractions -- 1920-21, 1929-33, and 1937-38 -- is directly attributable to acts of commission and omission by the Reserve authorities .....
 
"Any system which gives so much power and so much discretion to a few men, so that mistakes -- excusable or not -- can have such far reaching effects, is a bad system.  It is a bad system to believers in freedom just because it gives a few men such power without any effective check by the body politic -- this the key political argument against an independent central bank ....
 
"To paraphrase Clemenceau money is much too serious a matter to be left to the central bankers."
-----  Milton Friedman, economist
 
Why can't politicians control the federal debt?  Because all our money is created out of debt.
 
US money is created by the purchase US bonds.  The public buys bonds, the banks buy bonds, foreigners buy bonds.  And when the Fed wants to create more money in the system, it buys bonds but pays for them with a simple book keeping entry, which it creates out of nothing.
 
Then, this new money, created by the Fed, is multiplied by a factor of ten by the banks, thanks to the fractional reserve principal. So although the banks don't create currency, they do create cheque book money or deposits, by making new loans.
 
The banks even invest some of this created money.  In fact over 1 trillion dollars of this privately created money has been used to purchase US bonds on the open market, which provides the banks with roughly $50 billion dollars in interest, risk free, each year, less the interest they pay to some depositors.
 
In this way, through fractional reserve lending, banks create over 90% of the money and therefore cause over 90% of our inflation.  time stamp 1:22
 
How can this be fixed without serious repercussions?  1h:23min
 
The US can get out of debt in 1 to 2 years by simply paying off these US bonds with debt free US  notes just like Lincoln issued.  Of course, that by itself would create tremendous inflation since our currency is presently multiplied by the fractional reserve banking system.  The ingenious solution, advanced in part by economist Milton Friedman, to keep the money supply stable and avoid inflation and deflation while the debt is retired.......
 
As the Treasury buys up its bonds on the open market with US notes, the reserve requirements of your hometown banks will be proportionately raised so the amount of money in circulation remains constant.
 
As those holding bonds are paid off in US notes, they will deposit this money thus making available the currency then needed by the banks to increase their reserves.
 
Once all the US bonds are replaced with US notes, banks will be at 100% reserve banking, instead of the fractional reserve system currently in use.
 
Monetary Reform Act:
 
1.  Pay off debt with debt-free US Notes.
 
2.  Abolish Fractional Reserve Banking.  As the debt is paid off, the reserve requirements of all banks and financial institutions would be raised proportionally at the same time....
 
3.  Repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and the National Banking Act of 1864.
 
4.  Withdraw the US from the IMF, the BIS and the World Bank.
 
 
 
"Banking is conceived in iniquity and born in sin.  Bankers own the earth.  Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money and control credit, and with the flick of a pen they will create enough money to buy it back again.  Take this great power away from the bankers and all great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this would be a better and happier world to live in.
 
"But if you want to continue the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of our own slavery, let them continue to create money and to control credit."
------  Sir Josiah Stamp, Director of the Bank of England ( appointed 1928 ). Reputed to be the 2nd wealthiest man in England at the time.
 
A gold backed currency usually brings despair to a nation.
 
Beware of a plan to a multi-national or world currency, this is the International Bankers Trojan Horse.
[/size][/color]

[Black Knight]

 
EX... if your broker is non-US, then you can get around the regulations (all except the ban on CFDs - for this one you also need a foreign address).  That's for now.  Starting April the NFA plans to try their first hand at cross-border regulation, telling offshore brokers they must follow their rules if they have so much as a single US client.  Having a foreign address prepares you for the future and covers you in those cases as well.  If you live in Canada, you're fine if your broker is non-US, and you fall under the regulations if they are in the US (despite your own residence).

Paul... awesome summary.  Thank you for sharing it.  For those who haven't yet seen it: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936  I didn't want to believe it, but it sure is starting to feel like that's what's going on here.  The whole thing which made forex attractive in the first place was the leverage.  In stocks, you need $100,000 in order to make $1000.  In fx you can (over time) turn $1000 into $100,000.  People found a way to profit in their system, so they gotta put a stop to it.  You can't run a farm with 30 farmers and 1 cow.  Though, in the shorter-term, I really do think this is about who very under-funded agencies (CTFC and NFA) looking for ways to boost membership revenues and also appease their masters (the futures brokers).

Huge kudos go out to both FXStreet.com and FXCM for joining the fight and publicly declaring their stance (brave thing for a big company to do, especially one regulated by the very organization they are standing against).  Both companies sent newsletters out last night to all their clients urging action as well as defining their own stance in firm opposition.  FXStreet is hosting an online conference on the subject: http://blogs.fxstreet.com/francesc/2010/01/20/live-coverage-open-discussion-about-the-cftc-101-leverage-proposal/

The CEO has also been blogging about it here:
http://blogs.fxstreet.com/francesc/2010/01/19/andrei-pehar-accusses-futures-brokers-to-be-behind-cftc-101-leverage-proposal

The full text of the proposal can be found at:
http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/groups/public/@lrfederalregister/documents/file/2010-456a.pdf

Here are some additional details for your letters, folks - please keep them coming (the little guys can fight this thing - if there's enough of us and we put up a united front):

You may submit your comments to secretary@cftc.gov

Include “Regulation of Retail Forex” in the subject line of the message and the identification number RIN 3038-AC61 in the body of the message.

Also, with the identification number RIN 3038-AC61, you can submit your comments by any of the following methods:

• Fax:  +1 (202) 418-5521

• Mail:  David Stawick, Secretary
           Commodity Futures Trading Commission
           1155 21st Street, N.W.
           Washington, DC 20581
           USA

Snail mail always carries more weight than fax, which carries more weight than e-mail.  I encourage you to be polite, professional, and intelligent your correspondence with them (like the sort of traders that I know you are).  State your points, and back them up.  Swearing and calling them names only serves to draw attention away from your points, and calls into question the credibility of the person making them.  Keep in mind that all public comments received will be posted without change to http://www.cftc.gov, including any personal information provided.

And if you would also like to copy the NFA (who proposes all of the new rules to the CFTC, including this one), the people there in charge of overseeing forex are:

spendleton@nfa.futures.org
squallo@nfa.futures.org

Please keep in mind that this is not a US-only issue.  The NFA also intends to try their hand at enforcing US regulations on offshore brokers and their clients beginning April 1st.  Their argument is that brokers (and their IBs) who have so much as one US-based client need to be registered members (great way to increase funding).  This is why you see companies such as FxPro dumping all their US accounts.  Do you like the idea of America playing "world police"?

[paulintoronto]

Thanks for the link BK and you're welcome.

There's another video I forgot to include which is similar to Money Masters.....

Fiat Empire
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5232639329002339531&ei=xP5WS-TuIN-Blgfaz7zoBw&q=fiat+empire#

[Black Knight]

 
You comments are now being published at:
http://www.cftc.gov/lawandregulation/federalregister/federalregistercomments/2010/10-001.html

They are reading, numbering, and filing every single one... your mail does matter.  Please keep it coming!

[Black Knight]

 

 
Hi Andrei,

Great email!  We are setting up a website now and I think it an excellent idea to have a section where people can leave comments in opposition.  I’ll suggest that to the person setting it up.

As far as campaigning do everything you can to get everyone to send comments to CFTC, their congressmen and be relentless on the bulletin boards.  Together we can beat this.

Charlie Delano
Director of Government Affairs
Forex Capital Markets
2701 Dallas Parkway, Suite 600
Plano, TX 75093

[Black Knight]

  
Something very important came out of today's meeting.  We now know its not "conspiracy theory" to assume there is more to the proposal than just the CFTC's stated mission of "protecting traders" (from themselves).  Seems like the CME has been whispering in the CFTC's ear and lobbying Washington like mad.  I can see why they would favor the end of off-exchange trading.  Just like it was the SEC who made CFDs outlawed in the US (why trade the underlying stock when you can trade it's contract up and down with no uptick and more leverage 24 hours a day?).

Folks... we are entering into a war for our very futures.  And I do not believe I'm overstating it.  Like I have been saying, there is much more than 10:1 at stake here.  FXStreet has an awesome article summarizing all of the main proposals, and sorted by order of importance... 10:1 is at the bottom:

http://www.fxstreet.com/education/markets-regulation/cftc-forex-proposal-us-retail-market-to-disappear/2010-01-19.html

In general, you will find lots of useful info at FXStreet.com's new Market Regulation section:
http://www.fxstreet.com/education/markets-regulation/
  

[Black Knight]

 
Here's a transcript of today's meeting for anyone who missed it:
http://blogs.fxstreet.com/francesc/2010/01/21/cftc-open-discussion-transcript/

[MG]

I've sent my response to the CFTC.

If you're reading this and haven't done the same yet, please don't delay.

[athan]

Have a look at this link

http://www.global-view.com/forums/thread.html?id=12331&f=4&tk=&afx=&s=&gvi=&w=&th=&nr=&subj=PENDING+FX+DISASTER%3A+3+EASY+STEPS+TO+STOP+THE+CFTC

[paulintoronto]

Hi BK, I don't think people should discount the possibility of other hidden agendas with the CFTA's recent changes and upcoming proposals.

Several CFTA members have had, or currently have affiliations with the US Treasury and the banking industry.....

Note that words like "forex" or "foreign exchange" appears nowhere in their profiles....and yet they are making drastic changes to trading regulations. !!!

http://www.cftc.gov/aboutthecftc/commissioners/index.htm

Chairman Gary Gensler
As Under Secretary of the Treasury, Chairman Gensler was the principal advisor to Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and later to Secretary Lawrence Summers on all aspects of domestic finance.  The office was responsible for formulating policy and legislation in the areas of U.S. financial markets, public debt management, the banking system, financial services, fiscal affairs, federal lending, Government Sponsored Enterprises, and community development.  In recognition of this service, he was awarded Treasury’s highest honor, the Alexander Hamilton Award.

Prior to joining Treasury, Chairman Gensler worked for 18 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was selected as a partner; in his last role he was Co-head of Finance.


Commissioner Michael Dunn
Prior to joining the CFTC, Mr. Dunn served as Director of the Office of Policy and Analysis at the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) where he managed the two FCA divisions responsible for developing regulations and public policy positions for applicable statutes as well as promoted the safety and soundness of the Farm Credit System (FCS).
He has been a loan officer and vice president of the Farm Credit Banks of Omaha and has served as a member of the Professional Staff of the Senate Agriculture Committee, specializing in agricultural credit. At the USDA, Mr. Dunn also served as a member of the Commodity Credit Corporation and Rural Telephone Bank Board.

Commissioner Jill E. Sommers
She also serves as the Commission designee to the Financial Literacy and Education Commission, which is chaired by the Secretary of Treasury and was established to improve the financial literacy and education of U.S. citizens.
Prior to that, Ms. Sommers worked in the Government Affairs Office of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), where she was instrumental in overseeing regulatory and legislative affairs for the exchange. During her tenure with the CME, she had the opportunity to work closely with congressional staff drafting the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.

Commissioner Bart Chilton
Prior to joining the CFTC, Mr. Chilton was the Chief of Staff and Vice President for Government Relations at the National Farmers Union where he represented average family farmers. In 2005, Mr. Chilton was a Schedule C political appointee of President Bush at the U.S. Farm Credit Administration where he served as an Executive Assistant to the Board.

 
Something very important came out of today's meeting.  We now know its not "conspiracy theory" to assume there is more to the proposal than just the CFTC's stated mission of "protecting traders" (from themselves).  Seems like the CME has been whispering in the CFTC's ear and lobbying Washington like mad.  I can see why they would favor the end of off-exchange trading.  Just like it was the SEC who made CFDs outlawed in the US (why trade the underlying stock when you can trade it's contract up and down with no uptick and more leverage 24 hours a day?).

Folks... we are entering into a war for our very futures.  And I do not believe I'm overstating it.  Like I have been saying, there is much more than 10:1 at stake here.  FXStreet has an awesome article summarizing all of the main proposals, and sorted by order of importance... 10:1 is at the bottom:

http://www.fxstreet.com/education/forex-basics/cftc-forex-proposal-us-retail-market-to-disappear/2010-01-19.html
  

[Black Knight]

 
By all means please continue the conversation in here, folks - and keep your letters coming to the CFTC.  But I also encourage you to sign for the mailing list at http://www.TradersAlliance.org - we will use this to disseminate important information in the future.