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

Displaying 371-380 out of 441 results for "Mutual Fund".

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - March 2nd, 2012

(Mar 2012)

Court Enters Summary Judgement Against Insider Trading Defendants John Jantzen and Wife, Marleen Jantzen
March 1, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22273)
On Wednesday, United States District Judge James R. Nowlin of the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, entered summary judgment against Austin residents John and Marleen Jantzen on insider trading chargesbrought by the Commissionin 2010. The Court found that both Jantzens insider traded in violation of the Exchange Act based on material...

Time to Call for More Transparency in ETF Market

(Mar 2012)

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) started as a "plain vanilla" product: a type of low-fee, tax-efficient mutual funds holding index-mimicking portfolios. The first ETF was formed by the Toronto Stock Exchange in the 1980s and has garnered spectacular popularity in recent years. According to a recent article in The Economist, the number of ETFs in America has almost tripled from its 2006 level of 343 to 1,098 in December 2011. This volume increase has been accompanied by substantial financial...

More Examples of CDO Warehousing and Potential Fraud

(Feb 2012)

Last month we had a blog post about Banc of America Securities selling investors CLOs which had already lost value before the CLO closing date. It seems that in July 2007 Banc of America transferred at least $35 million of previous losses to unsuspecting investors in two of its CLO offerings - LCM VII and Bryn Mawr II. In October 2008 when these two CLOs were liquidated investors lost nearly $150 million. But it is unlikely that these were the only structured deals that hid the true value of...

Mutual Fund Expense Analyzer: A Tool for Calculating Mutual Fund Fees and Expenses

(Feb 2012)

Every mutual fund investor should know how important fees and expenses are in determining the net return of his investment. Compared with other factors affecting a mutual fund's or an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)'s return, such as market returns, fees and expenses are more stable over time and it is therefore easier to predict their effect on a fund's future performance. However, comparing fees and expenses across funds can be tedious and confusing, as different funds can use different fee...

WSJ: Private-Equity Fund in Valuation Inquiry

(Feb 2012)

There is an article in the Wall Street Journal today concerning the alleged exaggeration of an asset's value in a private-equity fund. From the article:

The potential exaggeration in the [Oppenheimer Global Resource Private Equity Fund LP] grew to more than $4 million, according to documents shared with Oppenheimer investors. The bulk of this markup came as the fund was reaching out to potential investors in the fall of 2009, and helped push the fund's reported internal rate of return to 38%,...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - February 24th, 2012

(Feb 2012)

Federal Court Enters Order Imposing $2.5 Million Civil Penalty Against Investment Adviser Robert Glenn Bard and Vision Specialist Group, LLC.
February 23, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22267)
In July 2009 (Litigation Release No. 21160), the SEC stopped a fraud allegedly being perpetrated by Robert Glen Bard and his firm (Vision Specialist Group, LLC.). According to the SEC, Bard targeted residents of small rural communities promising high yields on relatively safe investments (such as CDs or...

Credit Risk in the Municipal Bond Marketplace

(Feb 2012)

Municipal bonds are debt securities issued by city, county or special-purpose government units (known as municipal authorities). This debt is typically issued to fund public works projects such as health care, construction projects or education. Because the interest from municipal bonds is usually exempt from federal income tax (one notable exception is Build America Bonds); the municipal bonds are especially attractive to high tax-bracket individuals. We will discuss some specifics of the...

What is a Synthetic ETF?

(Feb 2012)

The total asset value in Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has increased dramatically in recent years. At the same time, ETFs have become more commonly associated with exotic features. One such ETF (a synthetic ETF), also known as a swap-based ETF, tracks the return of a selected index (e.g. the S&P 500 stock index) using a total return swap. The use of derivatives such as total return swaps distinguishes a synthetic ETF from the physical ETFs on the market. A complete list of synthetic ETFs...

Stock Market Correlation and Portfolio Diversification

(Feb 2012)

It has long been argued that diversification of stock portfolios across country borders is important to reduce investment risk. Although the 2007-2008 financial crisis wreaked havoc on both the developed and the developing world, diversification remains a central pillar of modern portfolio theory. The following figure from World Federation of Exchanges shows the value of several stock indexes starting from 1992(Full Disclosure: No data available for Tehran SE/TEPIX in 2008, 2009 and 2010)....

Did ARS Interest Payments Adequately Compensate Investors After the Failures?

(Feb 2012)

Auction Rate Securities (ARS) are floating interest rate debt issued primarily by municipalities, mutual funds, and special purpose trusts. ARS were marketed as short-term, cash-equivalent investments similar to commercial paper but any similarities with short-term investments were superficial and misleading. ARS are long-term debt traded in periodic auctions with prices fixed at par. The auction-determined interest rate was constrained by a maximum rate which could prevent the auctions from...

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