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

Displaying 281-290 out of 692 results

Persistence Scorecard: Even Harder to Stay on Top

(Jul 2013)

S&P Dow Jones Indices has recently updated their semiannual Persistence Scorecard, which studies the consistency of returns for actively managed US equity mutual funds. Like the previous Persistence Scorecard from December 2012, the updated study finds little evidence that actively-managed mutual funds can outperform stated benchmarks on a consistent basis.

In fact, the results are rather worse than in the previous study. The report highlights three factors:

Percentage of funds in top quartile...

SEC Halts Texas-Based Forex Trading Scheme

(Jul 2013)

The SEC recently halted a foreign exchange ('forex') trading scheme run by Kevin G. White, an unregistered Plano, TX-based money manager.¹ White raised $7.1 million of investor capital through KGW Capital Management and Revelation Forex Fund representing that Revelation had achieved returns of approaching 400% since January 2009.²

Investors should realize that such persistent outsized returns are extremely unlikely. Indeed, bank and brokerage records reveal that the Revelation Forex Fund did...

The Basics of Insurance Linked Securities

(Jul 2013)

Financial innovation is typically associated with banks, but lately we've seen a number of new financial products developed and sold by insurance companies. Some of the most interesting products are known as insurance-linked securities, or ILS.

In the broadest sense, ILS transfer risk from insurance companies to investors. The largest segment of the ILS market is in catastrophe bonds (or 'cat bonds' for short), whose interest and principal payments depend on a specifically defined natural...

Misrepresentation of Asset Quality in RMBS

(Jul 2013)

Investors in Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) have suffered tremendous losses since 2007. Many junior and mezzanine investors were wiped out by the asset pools' delinquency rates coupled with the subordination embedded in these structured securities. Since then, there has been a proliferation of litigation alleging that the underwriters and originators of RMBS misrepresented the risks of these products. An interesting new paper by Professors Piskorski and Witkin of Columbia...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - July 12th, 2013

(Jul 2013)

Serial Fraudster Matthew J. Gagnon Sentenced to Five Years in Prison
July 11, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22749)
This week Matthew J. Gagnon was sentenced to "five years of incarceration followed by three years of supervised release and ordered...to pay over $4.4 million in restitution to his victims." Gagnon had pleaded guilty to "one count of criminal securities fraud for promoting a securities offering without fully disclosing the amount of his compensation in connection with his...

Regulators Impose Record Fine for Brokerage Firm's Supervisory Failures

(Jul 2013)

Yesterday evening, the Wall Street Journal reported that FINRA and several US exchanges fined the brokerage firm Newedge USA, LLC $9.5 million over alleged failures to adequately restrict automated client trading activity that "sought to manipulate U.S. markets for nearly four years." The trading activity took place on several exchanges including NYSE Euronext, NASDAQ OMX, and BATS Global Markets according to the WSJ article. FINRA's press release can be found on the FINRA website.

Newedge...

Hedge Funds and Private Placements May Soon Solicit Retail Investors

(Jul 2013)

According to the Wall Street Journal, the SEC will soon lift the ban on soliciting shares of hedge funds and other private placement investments to the general public, "a move that's expected to unleash a wave of ads touting such investments." We've been covering this story for some time, as the SEC has seemed reluctant to implement this new rule due to concerns from Congress and others over the lack of investor protections.

However, the SEC may have no choice. Lifting the ban was required by...

Similar Structured Product Premia in US and Europe

(Jul 2013)

One point we've made again and again in our research is that structured products -- debt securities with market-contingent payoffs -- tend to be priced at a premium to face value. We have documented premia in reverse convertibles, autocallables, absolute return barrier notes, principal-protected notes, dual directionals, and over 17,000 individual products freely available in our searchable structured product database.

Recently, the SEC has required structured product issuers to disclose an...

Reuters to Stop Sneak Peek of Consumer-Confidence Data

(Jul 2013)

Thomson Reuters will no longer be offering investors an early look at the results of the University of Michigan consumer-confidence survey, the NY Times reported yesterday and the Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning. The move was prompted by an investigation by the NY Attorney General and would likely be temporary while the investigation is ongoing.

We talked about this story a bit last week, emphasizing the in depth analysis conducted by Nanex, LLC on high frequency trading data...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - July 5th, 2013

(Jul 2013)

SEC Obtains Freeze On Proceeds from Unlawful Distribution of Biozoom Securities
July 3, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22742)
According to the complaint, eight Argentine citizens "unlawfully sold millions of shares" of Biozoom, Inc. (formerly Entertainment Art, Inc.) "in unregistered transactions" while two other Argentine citizens, Fernando Loureyro and Mariano Graciarena, also had received shares of Biozoom "but had not yet sold them." According to the SEC, from March to June 2013, the ten...

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