[whatshisface]

>There is some valid reasoning for the law... because you don't want a farmer to purchase 100,000 bad seeds and have his whole yield fail on his farm.

Will the right honorable gentleman next propose that we create a list of twelve permitted stocks, so that an investor will not purchase 100,000 risky shares only for the company to fail?

[dehrmann]

This is basically want public equity markets are. You have to be an "accredited investor" (the only requirement is having a lot of money) to invest in all the extra risky things.

[OJFord]

That's a US thing. In the UK there's a KYC type form you fill out, self-certifying that you know what you're doing. And then you can trade CFDs, which are illegal in the US accredited or not. (Or not approved by regulators I suppose I mean, I assume professional US desks trade them OTC 'in' Europe. But I think probably European brokers even can't market them to or allow trades by US retail customers?)

[graemep]

The US has options and futures markets

[OJFord]

Yes, contracts for difference are neither.

[graemep]

They are very similar. They were different when options and futures are settled by delivery of the underlying. Without, that not so much.

[pintxo]

Well, the government ordered the SEC to have a look. It’s not like the stock market is free capitalism.