Skip to main content

Cameron Schaerfl Comment On Regulatory Notice 22-08

Cameron Schaerfl
N/A

FINRA,

A little bit of background:
I am self taught in the domain of investment finance. The extent of formal financial education were a handful of economics classes and an accounting class in college. Year to Day, I am beating the S&P500 in my self-directed brokerage account because I taught myself how financial markets work with various resources publicly available.

My comment:
I as a free individual with capital at my disposal have the ability to decide for myself what risks are tolerable when purchasing public investment instruments.

Counter-party risk, volatility risk, and credit risk are made clear upon purchase currently, and further education upon inquiry is readily available with a simple online search.

Leverage and inverse funds serve as means to provide me, as an individual retail investor, specific vehicles to take positions otherwise available to institutional investors with whom I share the market.

If I made money on a trade, that was my decision. If I lose money, that was also my decision. In both cases I was the one who defined my risk tolerance and took a position.

If I choose to use a leveraged fund to take greater risk for a greater reward on a position, that is my discretion. If I choose to take an inverse position to the market to hedge myself, such as the date as of this comment (5/5/2022 all major indices -3% or greater), then that is my discretion.

As an investor, I can be right or wrong; but it is only fair as a market participant to be able to use these public instruments equally.

Thank you for reading my comment and taking it into consideration. I implore you make the decision to to allow me to manage my wealth as I see fit, especially in these uncertain times.