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

Displaying 61-70 out of 216 results for "JOBS Act".

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - September 20th, 2013

(Sep 2013)

Court Enters Final Judgment by Consent Against SEC Defendant Roland Kaufmann
September 19, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22802)
Yesterday the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered a final judgment against Roland Kaufman. The judgment bars Kaufman from participating in penny stock offerings and from serving as a director or officer of a public company. The judgment stems from a July 2012 SEC complaint that allegedAxius, Inc., Jean-Pierre Neuhaus, and Roland Kaufmann...

What is Black-Scholes, Anyway?

(Sep 2013)

In the past, we have reviewed the basics of options as well as included some discussion of more exotic options, such as binary options and barrier options, but we haven't talked in detail about option pricing. There are a lot of great models for valuing options, but they can be a bit intimidating for the uninitiated, even though the underlying ideas are simple.

Any option's value is dependent upon the probability and timing of payouts. For example, how much would you be willing to pay for an...

FINRA Investor Alert: Private Placements

(Sep 2013)

Many of the riskiest financial products we have seen are sold as private placements. Generally speaking, private placements are investments sold directly to accredited investors, and are not registered with the SEC. Private placements include hedge funds, oil and gas partnerships, private real estate investment trusts, and other speculative investments.

Yesterday, FINRA released an Investor Alert on private placements. In it, they warn investors that sales abuses and even fraud have been...

SEC Cracks Down on Firms for Short Selling Violations

(Sep 2013)

Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced "enforcement actions against 23 firms for short selling violations" stemming from their investigation of improper participation in initial public offerings (IPOs). Firms are prohibited from selling short stocks in the five business days immediately preceding an IPO. The restriction is meant to prevent firms from artificially lowering the price just prior to the IPO.

The SEC alleges that the 23 firms "bought offered shares from...

FDIC Goes After Directors of Failed Banks

(Sep 2013)

In recent months, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has been filing a significant number of lawsuits against bank executives to recoup losses stemming from the onslaught of bank failures following the financial crisis. The annual number of bank failures reached a peak at 157 in 2010 and has declined steadily since.

These bank failures were a significant test of the FDIC system. The fund backing the FDIC guarantee has been depleted by nearly $90 billion over the past five years...

SLCG Research: Structured Product Based Variable Annuities

(Sep 2013)

In 2010, AXA Equitable began issuing a new kind of variable annuity that, in addition to traditional mutual fund-like subaccounts, also included an option for a structured product-like crediting formula linked to an underlying index such as the S&P 500. Our firm had done a lot of work on both structured products and variable annuities, so in late 2011 we started analyzing the structured product embedded in AXA's product, eventually writing a short research paper on the subject which we...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - September 13th, 2013

(Sep 2013)

SEC Charges Atlanta-Based Investment Adviser Representative with Securities Fraud
September 12, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22797)
Earlier this week, the SEC chargedPaul Marshall, Bridge Securities, LLC, Bridge Equity, Inc. and FOGFuels, Inc. with misappropriation of client funds as well as violations of Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Securities Act of 1933 and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The SEC alleges that over the past two years, Marshall has misappropriated "at least $2...

FINRA Study: Financial Scams Prevalent

(Sep 2013)

Financial fraud is estimated to cost Americans between $40 and $50 billion annually . Last fall, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) commissioned a study on the financial vulnerability of Americans to classic investor scams. The online study surveyed a sample of more than 2,000 Americans aged 40 and above, chosen to represent the approximate age, ethnicity, and census region distribution reflected by the 2010 census.¹

According to the report,the survey found that approximately...

SEC Halts Florida-Based Prime Bank Investment Scheme

(Sep 2013)

On Monday, the SEC charged a Miami-based group with perpetrating a prime bank investment fraud. The group, which includes Florida attorney Bernard H. Butts, Jr., purported financial services provider Fotios Geivelis, Jr. (a/k/a "Frank Anastasio"), several sales agents, and their allegedly fraudulent business entities (Express Commercial Capital LLC and Worldwide Funding III Limited LLC), are also subject to an emergency asset freeze. View the full complaint.

Prime bank programs promise high...

CFTC: Concept Release on Risk Controls and System Safeguards for Automated Trading

(Sep 2013)

Yesterday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) produced their concept release on "Risk Controls and System Safeguards for Automated Trading Environments" (PDF). The CFTC is hoping to evaluate the efficacy of currently implemented risk control mechanisms that may have been sufficient for "human judgment and speeds" but may no longer be sufficient in the present environment of automated and interconnected high-frequency trading.

After reviewing the present status of automated...

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