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

Displaying 321-330 out of 692 results

SEC Charges South Miami with Defrauding Investors

(May 2013)

Yesterday the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged the City of South Miami with defrauding investors over the tax-exempt status of some municipal offerings.

In 2002, the City of South Florida obtained access to tax-exempt financing through a pooled conduit municipal bond issued by the Florida Municipal Loan Council (FMLC) to fund the construction of a mixed-use retail and parking structure in the city's commercial district.* The 2002 FMLC bond offering can be found online. The...

Higher Expected Returns Only Come from Higher Risk: The Case of 130/30 Strategies

(May 2013)

JP Morgan recently released an "Investment Insight" that puts the spotlight on 130/30 strategies, which are used by several mutual funds and ETFs from a variety of issuers. A 130/30 strategy involves selling short 30% of the assets in a portfolio and using the proceeds to leverage the long securities to 130% of initial assets. The securities that are shorted are expected by the portfolio manager to depreciate during the holding period (overvalued) while the assets that are purchased are...

Fitch Rolls Out New Ratings Indenture Abstract

(May 2013)

It is looking more and more like collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and other asset-backed securities -- the 'toxic' assets highlighted as some of the worst excesses of the financial crisis -- are back. And while the agencies that rate asset-backed securities are still at the center of the debate over the validity of these investments, at least one of them is trying to improve its explanation of their labyrinthine terms and conditions.

Fitch has recently published the first example of...

Options Strategies Embedded in Exchanged Traded Products

(May 2013)

In theory, exchange traded products (ETPs) can be linked to almost any underlying asset, including derivatives. While many ETPs are linked to portfolios of bonds or stocks, some are linked to portfolios of futures contracts, which we have discussed at length before. Bill Luby at VIX and More has written a couple posts on ETPs that are linked to portfolios of options, which are gaining some traction with investors. As usual, we greatly enjoyed Bill's posts and thought we'd explain some of the...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - May 17th, 2013

(May 2013)

Final Settlements Reached in "Golden Goose" Wall Street Insider Trading Case
May 15, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22700)
Earlier this week final judgments were entered against Jamil Bouchareb, Daniel Corbin, and Corbin's companies, CobinInvestmentHoldings, LLC and Augustus Management LLC, for their alleged involvement in a widespread insider trading scheme. Bouchareb and Corbin have agreed to pay over $1.2 million in disgorgement and pre-judgment interest to settle the charges. Additionally,...

What Buying a House and Structuring an Asset Backed Security Have in Common

(May 2013)

When you buy a house, it's generally a good idea to get it inspected so you know if there are any expensive problems you might have to pay for after the deal closes. It's also a good idea to make sure that the person inspecting the house be independent, knowledgeable and perhaps most importantly objective -- not paid by or otherwise conflicted with the seller. Otherwise, they might overlook problems to make sure the deal goes through.

Asset backed securities (ABS) -- such as mortgage backed...

FINRA, SEC Issue Investor Alert on Pension and Structured Settlement Income Streams

(May 2013)

Last week, both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued investor alerts concerning pension and structured settlement income streams. The SEC's investor bulletin and FINRA's investor alert can be found online. We haven't discussed the potential problems surrounding pension or structured settlement income streams before, but these regulatory notices highlight some of the potential issues that we think are important for...

Missouri Action Against Morgan Keegan Over Municipal Bond Issue Also Illustrates Markup Abuse

(May 2013)

On April 3, 2013 Missouri's Secretary of State of the State submitted a Petition for an Order to Cease and Desist and to Show Cause against Morgan Keegan over taxable municipal bonds Morgan underwrote for the City of Moberly in July 2010. The petition and the Offering Circular for the bonds are available to view online. The story has been picked up by The Bond Buyer and Law360.

Setting aside the Petition's allegations, the trading in this set of bonds highlights markup abuse we have found is...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - May 10th, 2013

(May 2013)

SEC Charges China-based Company and Former Chief Financial Officer in Fraudulent Scheme involving Non-Existent Computing Business
May 8, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22698)
According to the SEC's complaint, China-based company, Subaye Inc and its former CFO, James T. Crane, "misrepresented the company's business and operations, deceived the company's auditors, and misled investors about the company's true status and revenues." The SEC alleges that the defendants claimed Subaye had over 1,400...

Update on Apple-Linked Structured Products

(May 2013)

A few months ago, SLCG issued a working paper that studied the decline in value of Apple-linked structured products. Jason Zweig of the Wall Street Journal also wrote a piece about these findings, most notably that Apple's stock price decline had serious repercussions in the structured product market. Apple's stock price has continued to fall and we recently updated the paper to show how this decline is still affecting investors in structured products.*

Since reaching $700 in September of...

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