Here comes the incompetent government once again. The CFTC has introduced a new rule that automated trading systems must turnover their source code to the government meaning both the Department of Justice for criminal prosecutions and the CFTC. They will have no right to resistance and the rule seeks to exempt any right to appear before a judge to issue a subpoena. So ANYONE simply writing code would have to hand it over and deposit it with the CFTC and the DOJ just in case they want to investigate in the future.
The problem with this is huge. They have no expertise on how to even figure out the code and sure they could hire some kids with programming skills, but without trading skills, they really would never figure it out.
The only possible solution will be to exit the US markets. If you do not, whatever code you “deposit” with the government will waive all intellectual property rights for the government can take everyone’s code. Government employees can be bribed and just as Snowden exposed, NSA staff were passing around nude photos of girls they sent to their boyfriends. SEC regulators were caught watching porn at work. There will be a complete loss of all intellectual property rights on a wholesale basis.
