Month and a half ago I published that I was disappointed with the US traders as in my opinion 5,500 comments (most of them probably very much against the proposal) are much less than what I had expected. After all, with all the forums and portals as well as brokers promoting the anti-proposal point of view I had expected that at least 10-20,000 US traders will respond to that.
I must now admit that I was disappointed in vain because at the end of period more than 9,000 comments were counted by the CFTC (kudos to Francesc) and I suspect that many more were discarded probably containing inappropriate language (some Forex traders tend to be quite opinionated...) or lacking the proper subject line or perhaps some other details the CFTC finds necessary.
While I don't think this would really make CFTC change its imminent decision this is still a very powerful display of the US Forex traders potential as a collective.
With the comment period over CFTC will now need to review all comments and make its final decision - whether it gives any weight to the amount of comments or their content is something we will probably never know as there is no rule obliging CFTC to accept public's opinion. CFTC's document doesn't specify how long after the comment period is over should we anticipate the final say, but I imagine it should take another 30 days or so.
I already wrote what I think would happen and I'll write it again: I believe CFTC would 'settle' for a 1:25 or 1:30 Leverage as it probably intended to do from the first place in order to appease the public and brokers. CFTC won't however let the IBs off the hook - and this is far more destructive to the Forex industry in the long term if you ask me. After all, Futures brokers want those IBs working for them.
