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

Displaying 371-380 out of 707 results

Eaton Vance, Transparency, and Exchange-Traded Managed Funds (ETMFs)

(Apr 2013)

Eaton Vance (EV) made a splash yesterday when they announced an application with the SEC for approval of a new type of open-end fund they call "Exchange-Traded Managed Funds" or ETMFs. Since the announcement, several bloggers have commented on the implications of such products, such as Brendan Conway at Barrons and Olly Ludwig at IndexUniverse.

In August 2011, the Financial Times reported the uncovering of patents -- U.S. Patent Nos. 7,444,300, 7,689,501, 7,496,531, 8,131,621, 8,306,901 and...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - March 29th, 2013

(Mar 2013)

SEC Charges California-Based Hedge Fund Analyst and Two Others with Insider Trading
March 26, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22660)
Hedge fund analyst, Matthew Teeple, has been charged by the SEC for allegedly trading on material non-public information regarding Brocade Communication Systems Inc.'s 2008 acquisition of Foundry Networks, Inc. According to the SEC, Teeple received the information from Foundry's chief information officer, David Riley, and then caused the "hedge fund advisory firm...

TD Ameritrade Data Suggests Retail Investors Use ETFs in 'Sophisticated Ways'

(Mar 2013)

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are increasingly popular among retail investors. ETFs tend to have lower expense ratios than comparable mutual funds, and can be traded intraday like stock, giving them a comparable advantage that has proven attractive. The number of ETF issuers has grown, and that competition has driven down prices in what has become known in the financial press as the "ETF Fee War".

TD Ameritrade has produced an infographic that shows how their clients use ETFs, and the results...

JP Morgan's New Incarnation of Non-Agency RMBS Weakens Provisions from Pre-Crisis Version

(Mar 2013)

Last week, the Wall Street Journal covered the first non-agency residential mortgage-backed security (RMBS) offering from JP Morgan since the financial crisis. This particular RMBS is a collateralized mortgage obligation (CMO) which is "supported by 752 jumbo mortgage loans [...] made to borrowers with high credit scores and with about 35% of their own money in a down payment for the property." JP Morgan originated nearly half of the mortgage pool (48%) and First Republic Bank originated...

SPIVA Scorecard Year-End 2012

(Mar 2013)

S&P Dow Jones Indices recently released their year-end 2012 report comparing the performance of actively managed mutual funds against their benchmark indices (we covered the year-end 2011 report previously). The S&P Indices Versus Active Funds (SPIVA) Scorecard once again shows that, for the most part, mutual funds tend to underperform their benchmarks:

The year 2012 marked the return of the double digit gains across all the domestic and global equity benchmark indices. The gains passive...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - March 22nd, 2013

(Mar 2013)

Fake Hedge Fund Manager Sentenced to 40 Months in Prison
March 20, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22655)
Andrey C. Hicks was sentenced to "40 months in prison in connection with criminal charges...[of] committing wire fraud, attempting to commit wire fraud, and aiding and abetting wire fraud." Hicks was also "ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution." In 2011, the SEC charged Hicks and his investment advisory firm, Locust Offshore Management, LLC, "with misleading prospective investors about...

US Supreme Court Rules on Class Action Fairness Act

(Mar 2013)

Yesterday, Justice Breyer delivered the unanimous US Supreme Court decision in the matter of "The Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Greg Knowles." The decision could be significant for investors involved in securities class action suits, which often involve specific claims as to the total damage suffered by class members. In particular, it will likely mean that more of those cases will be handled by federal rather than state courts.

The case revolved around a particular section of the Class...

Barclays' Structured Product Linked to a Basket of ETFs and Indexes

(Mar 2013)

RISK.net recently posted an article entitled "IWM urges investors to think about risk-adjusted returns" in the structured products portion of their website. The article describes in detail a Barclays product for which Institute for WealthManagement, LLC (IWM) served as the basket selection agent. Interestingly, the basket is composed mostly of ETFs, which have been appearing in structured products more frequently as the ETF industry itself has become more mature. IWM's Matt Medeiros talked...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - March 15th, 2013

(Mar 2013)

Court Orders Former Prudential Securities Broker to Pay Over $763,000 Related to Deceptive Mutual Fund Market Timing Practices
March 13, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22643)
A final judgment was entered against Frederick J. O'Meally, a former registered representative of broker-dealer Prudential Securities Inc, for allegedly using "deceptive practices to evade blocks by mutual fund companies on his market timing trading." The judgment orders O'Meally to pay over $763,000 in disgorgement,...

More Trouble for Inland American Real Estate Trust

(Mar 2013)

Inland American's March 2012 quarterly report revealed that the company was the subject of an ongoing SEC investigation (we wrote about this in our blog post titled "SEC Investigation into Largest Non-Traded REIT May Be A Sign of Things To Come"). Inland American's 2012 annual report further disclosed that several stockholders have sued the company seeking recovery of damages (View the SEC filing). According to the information in Inland American's SEC filings, both the SEC investigation and...

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