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Geoffrey Schoonmaker Comment On Regulatory Notice 22-08

Geoffrey Schoonmaker
N/A

I am an adult, and can accept the responsibilities of my investing decisions. I don't need a regulator to tell me how to invest my personal finances. The lottery is perfectly legal and ran by governments as a tax on the poor.

Leveraged and inverse funds are an important part of my investment strategy. They don't take a degree in rocket science to understand. As with investing in any instrument, failure to do your due diligence can result in great financial loss. I personally know people who passed a series 57 exam and failed to be successful prop firm traders. Passing a test doesn't mean you'll be a successful trader, much less a successful investor.

I'll take it a step further - how much are you going to charge for the proposed test? What other barriers to entry are you going to place in my way?

I personally use these tools to hedge in uncertain markets, as well as to make more money in range markets than can be made investing in non leveraged funds. I find that they require far less capital than options, and you've already taken just about every other leveraged and hedging instrument away from the small trader / investor.

Let people make their own successes and failures and quit punishing people because a few crybabies can't take responsibility for their own actions. Every time I've invested in a fund, I receive a prospectus, something I've already read. If people don't do their due diligence, they deserve to lose their hard earned money.

Perhaps a better thing FINRA can do is introduce financial literacy courses into public schools. Nearly everyone I know complains that they were ill prepared for personal budgeting, let alone navigating financial markets. Use your power and position to make the world a better place and quit messing with us smaller investors. The table is already tilted enough against us.