If you are an American citizen, the short answer is: No,
you do not need to register with any government agency, or
pass any kind of test, or have a license in order to publish
trading advice.
However, you must be aware of certain restrictions.
The most important restriction is this. You cannot provide
individualized advice to clients. That is, you cannot offer
different advice to different clients based on their
individual financial situations.
Here's an example.
Allowed: "Attention all subscribers to my
trading system: Buy IBM because I believe it is going
up!"
Not allowed: "Dear John Doe: based on our
conversation earlier today, in which you told me you were
nearing retirement, I think you should buy IBM, because it
will appreciate in value!"
The other important restriction is that you cannot manage
clients' trading accounts on their behalf. You can't have
access to their money, or issue trading instructions to
their brokers. Otherwise you cross the line from publishing,
which is allowed, to asset-management, which requires
registration.
You must simply restrict your activity to publishing
non-personalized advice which your clients can choose to act
upon or not. (Note that using Collective2 to disseminate
your trading advice via a Web site and email is considered publishing.)
Remember that our right to publish and say what we like is
protected by the First Amendment, a right that our citizens
fight for, to this day. No small matter, that.
If you are not an American citizen, then I have no idea
what kind of constraints your government places upon you.
Please check with a local attorney. |