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Our experts frequently write blog posts about the findings of the research we are conducting.

Displaying 31-40 out of 157 results for "Interest Rate Swaps".

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - November 11th, 2012

(Nov 2012)

SEC Charges Purported Credit Union and Its Principal with Offering Fraud
November 8, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22526)
The SEC filed a civil injunctive action against Stanley B. McDuffie and his entity, Jilapuhn, Inc (which has done business as Her Majesty's Credit Union) this week. According to the complaint (opens to PDF), from 2008 to 2012 McDuffie and HMCU enticed investors to purchase CDs "through the HMCU website and a branch office in the U.S. Virgin Islands," assuring investors that...

Back to the Future: Stock Prices Quoted with Fractions

(Nov 2012)

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the SEC is considering reverting back to an old system in which stock prices were quoted using fractions. Using fractions for stock prices in the US has its roots in a Spanish colonial currency whose smallest denomination was 1/8 of a doubloon, hence prices were quoted in eights. The NYSE, founded in 1792 within the Buttonwood agreement, modeled their listing system off the Spanish system.

The largest number used for the denominator in the...

ETFs in 529 Plans

(Nov 2012)

We've talked before about the possibility that ETFs will replace mutual funds in many 401(k) retirement plans and the implications that might have for retirees. While most 401(k) plans have not yet adopted ETFs in their investment lineups, ETFs are becoming more common in another type of long-term savings plan known as a 529 Plan.

529 Plans are typically run by states and are used to save for future education expenses such as college. There are several ways to take advantage of 529 Plans. One...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - November 2nd, 2012

(Nov 2012)

Commission Files Subpoena Enforcement Action Against Adam Bielski
November 1, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22525)
On October 24, 2012, the SEC filed an application for "an order to enforce an investigative subpoena served on Adam Bielski." In August the SEC "issued a formal order of private investigation authorizing its staff to investigate...potential compliance and security deficiencies at a Massachusetts-based investment adviser...registered with the Commission." Specifically, the staff...

Leveraged Exposure to the Mortgage REIT Sector

(Oct 2012)

Michael Aneiro over at Barron's pointed out an interesting recent SEC 424(b)2 filing from ETRACS for their Monthly Pay 2x Leveraged Mortgage REIT ETN (MORL). According to the prospectus, the ETNs will "provide a monthly compounded two times leveraged long exposure to the performance of the [Market Vectors Global Mortgage REITs Index], reduced by the Accrued Fees." This ETN is essentially a leveraged version of Market Vectors Mortgage REIT ETF (MORT) which tracks the same underlying index.

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The Effects of ETF Turnover

(Oct 2012)

Lately there has been a lot of turnover in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as we noted back in August. InvestmentNews has a great summary of what has happened this year, with 86 funds having closed so far in 2012. They note the important consequences of an ETF closing for investors and advisers:

Even though they are more routine, ETF closings still can create ripple effects that reach financial advisers and their clients. "For an adviser, the worst thing that can happen is, you recommend an ETF...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - October 26th, 2012

(Oct 2012)

Former Silicon Valley Executive to Pay $1.75 Million to Settle Insider Trading Charges
October 26, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22523)
The SEC charged Kris Chellam, former senior executive of Xilinx Inc., with illegally tipping "hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam with nonpublic information that allowed the Galleon hedge funds to make nearly $1 million in illicit profits." Chellam allegedly tipped Rajaratnam on December 5, 2006 that Xilinx Inc. "would fall short of revenue projections it had...

Do ETF Flows Move the Market?

(Oct 2012)

As exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows have grown over the past few years, the question of whether those fund flows influence the prices of ETF holdings has become a perennial issue. Matt Jarzemsky and Chris Dieterich of the Wall Street Journal recently posted what is perhaps the highest profile discussion of this issue to date, in which they provide interesting evidence that the ETF 'tail' might be wagging the market 'dog.'

They note that in early October, mid-cap indexes saw...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - October 19th, 2012

(Oct 2012)

SEC Charges Three Individuals for Their Roles in a $5.77 Million Investment Scheme
October 18, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22514)
According to the complaint (opens to PDF), from February 2010 to February 2011 Geoffrey H. Lunn, Darlene A. Bishop, and Vincent G. Curry raised $5.77 million in an "investment scheme [through] Dresdner Financial, a fictitious financial services company." Lunn allegedly attracted investors by posing as the vice-president of Dresdner and telling investors that...

Vanguard Abandons MSCI and MSCI's Share Price Crashes

(Oct 2012)

A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that Vanguard is replacing the benchmarks on nearly two dozen of its index funds currently provided by MSCI and replacing them with benchmarks provided by either FTSE or the Center For Research In Security Prices (CRSP) at the University of Chicago. See the press release dated October 2, 2012.

This is clearly great news for FTSE since this index change by Vanguard makes them the "third-largest equity exchange traded product index benchmark...

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