Will the Tobin Tax Kill Retail Forex Trading ?

[Trader333]

The will to implement this now seems stronger than ever. The original idea was to stabilise currencies by effectively penalising short term currency speculators. In my view this is rubbish and is just another way of taxing people and preventing free trade.

My understanding is that the levels at which this tax are likely to be set is between 0.1 of 1% to 0.25 of 1%. That means if you want to convert 100K GBP to USD it will cost you between an extra £100 to £250 just one way of the trade.

At this cost it will kill retail forex trading and it will then become the same old story of a few large institutions with no transparency calling all the shots. It will though have no impact at all in stabilising any currency in my view at all.

What do others think ?


Paul

 

[Black Swan]

Not gonna happen. Gethneir laughed at Brown when he suggested it last year and Obama is just mouthing of, attempting to pull back some votes and look hard after making a bit of a tw@t of himself recently...
The model you quote wouldn't just imper retail trading, think of the damage it may cause to, for example, pension schemes/insurance schemes/funds, a lot of which are already severely underwater...

 

[tar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_tax

 

[zambuck]

...If Tobin Tax was in place then Soros would not have screwed pound and whole UK economy with it....Tobin Tax was proposed to tackle this kind of things happening in world all over, where one single and extremely big speculator would be able to bring whole country's economy into stalemate...!!

....Bring it on and soon...!

 

[Rossini]

Ye that's right, it was Soros that put us in this mess. For a moment there I almost forgot...

 

[barryb]

...If Tobin Tax was in place then Soros would not have screwed pound and whole UK economy with it....Tobin Tax was proposed to tackle this kind of things happening in world all over, where one single and extremely big speculator would be able to bring whole country's economy into stalemate...!!

....Bring it on and soon...!

Someone can't make any money trading fx :whistling

 

[Black Swan]

...If Tobin Tax was in place then Soros would not have screwed pound and whole UK economy with it....Tobin Tax was proposed to tackle this kind of things happening in world all over, where one single and extremely big speculator would be able to bring whole country's economy into stalemate...!!

....Bring it on and soon...!

In our capitalist global society Govts. don't make these decisions, they squawk, act tough then announce the decisions of big business once big business has made the decisions. On that basis I can see no evidence how it would benefit the biggest of business - Banksterism. Case closed IMO.

 

[Trader333]

If Tobin Tax was in place then Soros would not have screwed pound and whole UK economy with it

The government at the time were secretly shadowing the German Mark so they were also manipulating the currency. If nations don't want currency speculators then do what China does and don't float it. All Soros proved was that if you try and control a market (as was the case with the UK government at that time) then at some point the market will prove that it controls you.


Paul

 

[donaldduke]

The will to implement this now seems stronger than ever. The original idea was to stabilise currencies by effectively penalising short term currency speculators. In my view this is rubbish and is just another way of taxing people and preventing free trade.

My understanding is that the levels at which this tax are likely to be set is between 0.1 of 1% to 0.25 of 1%. That means if you want to convert 100K GBP to USD it will cost you between an extra £100 to £250 just one way of the trade.

At this cost it will kill retail forex trading and it will then become the same old story of a few large institutions with no transparency calling all the shots. It will though have no impact at all in stabilising any currency in my view at all.

What do others think ?


Paul

There may be alot of will in theory.

But the tax just doesnt work in practice as far i can see.

Its a tax that will raise much less revenue as soon its implemented fewer people will pay it. No day trader will pay it for a start, as no one will want to day trade anymore at those tax rates.

There will always be some country somewhere that will be willing to host tobin tax free FX trading.

FX CFDs and Spread Bets will probably be exempt just like they are exempt from uk share stamp duty.

 

[Mr. Charts]

Obama is stupid enough to attempt to bring such regulations into effect, though I doubt he could get it through Congress. He doesn't seem to be able to grasp complexities and is either paralysed into inaction or makes rash decisions shooting his mouth off with intemperate language. I'm surprised he doesn't empathise with Gordon Brown.
I suspect his achievements will rival those of the peanut farmer.

 

[maiden22]

Obama is stupid enough to attempt to bring such regulations into effect, though I doubt he could get it through Congress. He doesn't seem to be able to grasp complexities and is either paralysed into inaction or makes rash decisions shooting his mouth off with intemperate language. I'm surprised he doesn't empathise with Gordon Brown.
I suspect his achievements will rival those of the peanut farmer.

Absolutely.

It's amazing how people simply never learn. Remember 1997?

 

[virtuos0]

Obama is stupid enough to attempt to bring such regulations into effect, though I doubt he could get it through Congress. He doesn't seem to be able to grasp complexities and is either paralysed into inaction or makes rash decisions shooting his mouth off with intemperate language. I'm surprised he doesn't empathise with Gordon Brown.
I suspect his achievements will rival those of the peanut farmer.

I have to admit to my eternal shame, that I got sucked in by Obama's rhetoric. I actually started thinking that the US would have a president with enough balls to start working for the people rather than the military-industrial complex.

Now, bizarrely, I almost wish Bush was back, at least you knew where he stood. Obama appears to be in way over his head.

 

[zambuck]

The government at the time were secretly shadowing the German Mark so they were also manipulating the currency. If nations don't want currency speculators then do what China does and don't float it. All Soros proved was that if you try and control a market (as was the case with the UK government at that time) then at some point the market will prove that it controls you.


Paul

Nevertheless it is a fact that Soros would not have speculated to the magnitude that he did....He made his billions, but it was people who paid for it.....Not speculators nor Politicians....And in funny sort of way he actually endorses Tobin Tax....

This goes on all the time with all countries....All poor countries follow USD any try to have some form of parity with it.....

Point about UK was that although they were aware of the UKP strength, they still overvalued it against DM.....and why not...all the countries will do the same....They will always overvalue their currency....

Politicians and Speculators can do what they do, but people should not have to pay price for incompetence and that is what Tobin Tax will prevent....

China is a different story....They will never float their currency as it is main industrial powerhouse and will continue to pile in Dollars and Gold in their coffers for many years to come...US has tried it many times to get some parity with Yuan, but no success so far...

Tobin Tax will affect short term speculators only....

 

[zambuck]

Someone can't make any money trading fx :whistling

...Yes I don't trade forex.....never have done....and also don't trade anymore either.....

....Haven't got time....Busy doing nothing....!

 

[Trader333]

Point about UK was that although they were aware of the UKP strength, they still overvalued it against DM

Exactly, it was overvalued because the UK government was manipulating it to be that way. In a free market it would fallen naturally and what Soros did was cause that to happen.


Paul

 

[donovan5]

I have to admit to my eternal shame, that I got sucked in by Obama's rhetoric. I actually started thinking that the US would have a president with enough balls to start working for the people rather than the military-industrial complex.

Now, bizarrely, I almost wish Bush was back, at least you knew where he stood. Obama appears to be in way over his head.

Give the guy a chance he took over from a position with the economy up the creek and American popularity at it's lowest worldwide.
It takes more than a year to turn things rouns especially in a country where the leader has a lot less power than most think.

 

[Black Swan]

I have to admit to my eternal shame, that I got sucked in by Obama's rhetoric. I actually started thinking that the US would have a president with enough balls to start working for the people rather than the military-industrial complex.

You and millions of others buddy, notice how race was not an issue until after he was elected? The black man (or woman) has no excuse to riot now in the US ("heh, the top man is black, no racsim here") which was on the cards, particularly if the emergency welfare bills hadn't been rushed through....

Obama was permitted to run for the election uncontested after his meeting in Colorado with the elite global decision makers, shortly after that meeting Clinton withdrew her nomination and if you recall the Republicans put up a pittance for Mc Cain who actually (with hindsight) did remarkably well considering his lack of support.

Obama is a very good practitioner of Nuero Linguistic Programming. He hypnotised audiences with his carefully programmed rhetoric, gestures and mannerisms. There were plenty of us who spotted it during his later televised broadcasts, some of the techniques were classic. No politician (in living memory) has ever been this good or blatently used such technique.

There is reams of how he did it on the web if you've got an hour to kill. He dropped this method at his inagrual speech, many NLP practitioners noted this huge drop in enthusiasm and lack of technique. He has not (noticably) used any techniques since.

AN EXAMINATION OF OBAMA’S USE OF HIDDEN HYPNOSIS TECHNIQUES IN HIS SPEECHES
EXPOSING OBAMA’S DECEPTION MAY BE THE ONLY WAY TO PROTECT DEMOCRACY
An Examination of Obama’s Use of Hidden Hypnosis Techniques in His Speeches

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/18/661025/Obama_Hypnosis.pdf

 

[zambuck]

Exactly, it was overvalued because the UK government was manipulating it to be that way. In a free market it would fallen naturally and what Soros did was cause that to happen.


Paul

....and it would have found it's base eventually, without hurting a country and it's people....but the whole point is that a lone big speculator hammered it and put whole country's population in a bog mire....Let parity find it's way eventually....

Forex speculation is not being questioned, it is the magnitude of single trade, which affects people in general that is being questioned...and that is what Tobin Tax is all about.....

...If Soros had left it alone, the GBP would have found it's base eventually....

 

[Trader333]

No politician (in living memory) has ever been this good or blatently used such technique.

What about Hitler ? He literally put audiences into a trance.


Paul

 

[qwerty07]

Obama is a very good practitioner of Nuero Linguistic Programming. He hypnotised audiences with his carefully programmed rhetoric, gestures and mannerisms. There were plenty of us who spotted it during his later televised broadcasts, some of the techniques were classic. No politician (in living memory) has ever been this good or blatently used such technique.

There is reams of how he did it on the web if you've got an hour to kill. He dropped this method at his inagrual speech, many NLP practitioners noted this huge drop in enthusiasm and lack of technique. He has not (noticably) used any techniques since.

AN EXAMINATION OF OBAMA’S USE OF HIDDEN HYPNOSIS TECHNIQUES IN HIS SPEECHES
EXPOSING OBAMA’S DECEPTION MAY BE THE ONLY WAY TO PROTECT DEMOCRACY
An Examination of Obama’s Use of Hidden Hypnosis Techniques in His Speeches

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/18/661025/Obama_Hypnosis.pdf

well if there's a pdf on the web saying this, then it must be true..