Blog

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

Displaying 271-280 out of 692 results

Municipal Bonds Trading in ETFs

(Aug 2013)

About a month ago, we spent a full week highlighting research conducted at our firm that shows the degree to which investors are harmed by excessive markups in municipal bond trading. In the paper, our colleagues argue that low-cost improvements in disclosure requirements could largely eliminate these transfers of wealth from taxpayers and investors to the brokerage industry.

After the research was completed, we began thinking about other ways investors gain exposure to municipal bonds. For...

FINRA's Market Data Center

(Aug 2013)

FINRA has a number of useful web-based tools on their website. We mention their BrokerCheck tool quite often, as it allows investors to check on the professional background and disciplinary history of any particular broker or firm registered with the agency. Another very useful tool is their Market Data Center, which provides a wide variety of market data for free.

Perhaps the most useful aspect of the Market Data Center is the the TRACE (Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine) database. TRACE...

SEC Charges Indiana School District and Underwriter with Defrauding Investors

(Jul 2013)

Yesterday the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced thatWest Clark Community Schools -- and Indiana School District -- City Securities Corporation and Randy G. Ruhl have been charged with defrauding investors in connection with municipal bond offerings. The SEC order against the school district and against the underwriter can be found on the SEC website.

The action stems from the fact that the school district was contractually obligated to disclose financial information on an...

SLCG Research: Structured Certificates of Deposit

(Jul 2013)

Lately, we've been fascinated by structured certificates of deposit (CDs), also known as 'market-linked CDs', 'equity-linked CDs', 'market contingent CDs', etc. Structured CDs are bank deposits that have interest payments linked to market indexes, individual stocks, commodities, or any other underlying asset. Unlike structured products, which have public SEC disclosure documents, structured CDs are not well studied and even the size of the market is not perfectly clear. We covered the basics...

JP Morgan to Exit the Physical Commodities Business

(Jul 2013)

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that JP Morgan plans to sell their physical commodities assets "amid heightened regulatory scrutiny of Wall Street's ownership of such assets."¹ JP Morgan joins several other investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, who are looking to sell or wind down their stakes in physical commodities.

According to the WSJ, the sale by JP Morgan will include trading desks that trade metals, power and fossil fuels. JP Morgan has drawn particular...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - July 26th, 2013

(Jul 2013)

SEC Charges Former Portfolio Manager At SAC Capital with Insider Trading
July 25, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22761)
This week the SEC charged Richard Lee, a former portfolio manager at SAC Capital Advisors, with insider trading "ahead of public announcements about a Microsoft-Yahoo partnership and the acquisition of 3Com Corporation by Hewlett-Packard." Lee's alleged insider trading caused "the S.A.C. Capital hedge fund that he managed to generate more than $1.5 million in illegal profits."...

Calculating Retirement Income and Fees from a 401(k) Account

(Jul 2013)

Saving for retirement means asking a lot of questions.

What monthly income will you need? Forbes claims this is the fundamental question that is often overlooked by 401(k) account holders.

"The lump sum in your 401(k) may seem like a lot, but when you translate it into a monthly income stream over 20 or 30 years, it may not be as much as you think," [Jeanne Thompson of Fidelity] says. "Breaking it down into how much the money will provide will give you a much better picture of how much you'll...

Why Banks Are Storing Physical Commodities, and Why it May Matter

(Jul 2013)

Physical commodities -- barrels of oil, bars of gold, bushels of wheat, etc. -- are used for a variety of industrial purposes, but can also be bought and sold in financial markets. Most commodities trading involves futures contracts, as trading the physical commodity itself involves transportation and storage costs. Traditionally, banks who traded commodities were only allowed to deal in derivatives such as futures contracts, rather than dealing in the physical commodity itself.

But since the...

FINRA Focuses Investigation of High-Frequency Trading Firms

(Jul 2013)

In January, FINRA released their annual regulatory and examinations priorities for the upcoming year, in which they vowed to "focus significant resources" on, among other things, algorithmic trading and high-frequency trading (HFT) abuses. They have already levied a record fine against a brokerage firm for failing to supervise manipulative high-frequency trading, and their emphasis on HFT issues mirrors efforts by the SEC and CFTC to bring the HFT industry under better regulatory...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - July 19th, 2013

(Jul 2013)

Court Finds Massachusetts-Based Viking Financial Group, Inc. and its Owner Steven Palladino Liable for Violations of the Securities Laws
July 18, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22752)
The federal district court in Massachusetts "held that...Steven Palladino, and his...company, Viking Financial Group, Inc., committed securities fraud." According to the SEC, "since April 2011, Palladino and Viking falsely promised at least 33 investors that their money would be used to conduct the business of...

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