"But did you see what the Trade Group for the day trading houses said? They said it is NOT gambling, it is investing!!"
Howard, did you see what I said??
"But using Barton as the poster boy for regulation is as idiotic as claiming investing in the stock market is not gambling. IMHO in this instance both sides of this issue are making fools of themselves."
I have no idea what you mean by this: "Yes, casino gambling and horse racing are fine, and they are honest, and you know what you are getting."
Excuse me, but one of the ideas behind the thrill of gambling is that you do not know what you are getting! You may think you know what will happen, you may have good reasons (to you anyway) for thinking you know what will happen, but it is gambling after all -- you do not know if you will win or lose.
All you know for SURE at the track and in card rooms and casinos is that the odds are against you winning!!!
"But I do not see why the SEC should be trading legalized gambling of stocks which has Nothing to do with capital formation or investing, and which can only cause market disruptions."
"...why the SEC should be trading legalized gambling of stocks..." I have no idea what that means, sorry.
As for day trading having nothing to do with capital formation, ummmm, excuse me, but that applies to all trading of stocks, whether it is by the day, week, month or year, Pink Sheets, OTCBB, NASDAQ, AMEX or NYSE. Also Bond trading and commodity trading. Or didn't you know that when you buy or sell stocks the company does not get any of that money? When I sold some shares in April, they were bought by another individual like you or me. When I bought some shares recently, I bought them from another individual like you or me. There was no capital formation in either of those transactions.
The only time capital is formed is when a company does an offering, period. And guess what! The company only makes the opening price on the stock...The underwriter buys the shares from the company at the opening price and sells them on the open market. When the price goes up dramatically as it has with several internet stocks, the company has not made any extra money!!!!! The underwriter or the shareholders who sell shares they recently bought are the ones who make the extra money (even if you already understand this, I'm sure it may help others to read it again).
As for your 50% tax, what would be the purpose of it? To keep insane murderers like Barton from killing again?
And should we then charge a 50% tax for winning money on more than one race per day? How about if they play poker in a card room for more than 8 hours and win and lose and win and lose? What if at a casino someone wins money on the slot machines and loses the same money playing Black Jack, shall we tax that 50%? And should we distinguish between casual, vacationing gamblers and career gamblers?
Please don't be silly. We have enough foolishness on this thread already thank you very much!
grin
PCM
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