Archive for: July, 2014

Jack Duval

Jack has 18 years experience in the financial industry and has been consulting on securities litigations since 2004. He brings a combination of academic analysis and industry experience to his work. As part of his consulting experience, Jack has been involved in over 200 litigations and he has testified or given depositions in many different arbitration and civil forums.

DOJ and SEC Issue Guide to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

The Department of Justice and the SEC have jointly issued a guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. (USFCPA)  For the uninitiated, there is a nice explanation of both DOJ and SEC resolutions beginning at page 74. Fenwick & West LLP has a good summary, which can be found here.

Finra Incorporates Social Media in New Communications Rules

Finra Notice to Members 12-29, announced the SEC approval of far reaching updates to previous NASD and NYSE communications rules.  (NTM 12-29)  The new rules will be numbered 2210 and 2212-16 and will be collectively referred to as the “Communication Rules”.  These new rules will incorporate and replace the following rules: Finra rules: 2210, 2211,…

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Finra Reflects on the SRO Model

Finra Executive Vice President, Thomas M. Selman, spoke at the Investment Program Association Fall Conference on November 15, 2012 and made some interesting comments.  (IPAFC)  I have extracted some of the better parts below. Here’s another pitch for Finra (and not the SEC) to regulate Investment Advisors: Despite the longstanding faith in the SRO model,…

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Finra Statement to the Senate on Protecting Senior Investors

Gerri Walsh, President of the Finra Investors Education Foundation, and Vice President of Finra Investor Education, made a Statement for the Record at a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.  (Finra) In this statement, Walsh reiterated Finra’s commitment and efforts to protect senior investors.  I have excerpted some of the text below: How…

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SEC Report on Examination of Ratings Agencies

The SEC has issued its 2012 Summary Report of Commission Staff’s Examinations of Each Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization.  (SEC)  This is more of what is coming out of Dodd-Frank.  In particular: In July 2010, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”), which, among other things, amended Section…

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Foreign Firms Face Half the Securities Litigations of Domestic Firms

A recent paper by Cheng, Srinivasan, and Yu of the Harvard Business School found that U.S. listed foreign companies experienced about half the class action lawsuits as their U.S. counterparts.  (SSRN)  Here’s the abstract: We study securities litigation risk faced by foreign firms listed on U.S. exchanges. We find that U.S. listed foreign companies experience…

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High Yield Debt Stats Flashing Sell Signal

New issue high yield bond issuance is a record highs, while non-investment grade yields are at record lows, Soberlook reports.  (Soberlook) This can only end badly.      

Shale Gas Bubble Evidence Continues to Grow

Geological consultant and energy expert, Arthur Berman, has an interview with Oilprice.com with some frightening observations.  (Oilprice)  The most sobering may be the following: A lot of investors from other parts of the world, particularly the oil-rich parts have been making somewhat high-risk investments in the United States for many years and, for a long…

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Master Limited Parternship Warning from Morningstar

Morningstar has issued a research note warning investors about the ALPS Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP).  (Morningstar)  The reason?  Hot money is flowing into this ETF because the industry giant, JPMorgan Alerian MLP Index ETN (AMJ), has hit its $5 billion asset limit and stopped creating new units.  This means AMJ is now a closed-end fund…

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