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

Displaying 591-600 out of 694 results

SLCG Research: Reverse Convertibles and Stochastic Volatility

(Feb 2012)

We've talked a lot about structured products -- and reverse convertibles in particular -- on this blog. In this blog post we discuss reverse convertibles in more detail and present some results found in a new research paper my colleagues and I have just completed.

Reverse convertible notes -- or simply "reverse convertibles" -- are structured products whose payoff at maturity is dependent upon the return of an underlying asset or security during the tenor of the note. If the underlying asset...

Did BoA's 2007 CLOs Defraud Investors?

(Jan 2012)

We have posted a new paper today showing that on July 2007 Banc of America appears to have transferred at least $35 million of previous losses to unsuspecting investors in two of its CLO offerings - LCM VII and Bryn Mawr II. Investors ultimately lost nearly $150 million in October 2008 when these two CLOs backed by leveraged loans were liquidated.

Leveraged loans issued to below investment grade corporations were frequently extended by a syndicate of lenders intending to re-sell...

Oppenheimer Ordered to Repurchase $5.98 Million in Auction Rate Securities

(Jan 2012)

In January 2012, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel in New York ordered Oppenheimer to repurchase certain Auction Rate Securities sold to Claimant Nicole Davi Perry for $5.98 million, plus payment of $134,108 in legal fees. The award was posted in FINRA's arbitration database this Monday. See this related report from Reuters. Dr. O'Neal at SLCG testified on behalf of the Claimant; Dr. O'Neal and Dr. McCann have authored a report on ARS previously.

Auction rate...

Freddie Mac, complex derivatives, and one huge conflict of interest

(Jan 2012)

There have been many news reports lately describing the difficulty homeowners have had in refinancing their mortgages. Many decry the strict requirements imposed on them by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the massive taxpayer-owned-but-ostensibly-nongovernmental mortgage financing firms. Well today, NPR and ProPublica are reporting that Freddie Mac bet billions that many homeowners would not be able to refinance their mortgages.

Now that's a conflict of interest. Other outlets have begun to...

President and CIO of Direxion admits that leveraged ETFs are not appropriate for most investors

(Jan 2012)

Today Seeking Alpha posted an interview with Dan O'Neill, President and CIO of Direxion, one of the first and best known issuers of leveraged ETFs. Readers familiar with our work on leveraged ETFs know that we feel these products are almost always unsuitable for retail investors.

Surprisingly enough, Mr. O'Neill agrees completely:

The leveraged indexed ETFs are used by very tactical investors, and so there we have bull and bear funds. They have daily betas, which means that essentially...

Interest Rate Swaps

(Jan 2012)

In this blog post, we will discuss a particular kind of over-the-counter (OTC) derivative instrument called interest rate swaps. This post is meant as a broad stroke and an introduction to interest rate swaps. In the future, we plan to have additional posts about specialized interest rate swaps, case studies of particular interest rate swaps and on the pricing of interest rate swaps.

Interest rate swaps are customizable bilateral (involving two parties) agreements wherein one party exchanges...

FINRA Regulatory Notice: Complex Products

(Jan 2012)

FINRA recently released Regulatory Notice 12-03: Heightened Supervision of Complex Products, outlining their increased scrutiny of a wide variety of alternative investments including structured products, inverse or leveraged exchange traded funds, and asset-backed securities. Here at SLCG, we've done research on each of those subjects, and have a variety of ongoing projects that bear directly on the issues highlighted by the Notice.

The products identified include:

Asset-backed...

WSJ on the 'sophisticated investor' defense

(Jan 2012)

The Wall Street Journal's Financial Advisor blog has a new article on the 'sophisticated investor' defense in securities litigation. This defense is typically used by defendants (usually banks or investment houses) in response to claims against them related to suitability of complex investment products. It boils down to the assertion that because a claimant has a high net worth, he or she is capable of understanding and willing to assume the risks of even extraordinarily complex strategies....

Futures-Based (Commodities) ETFs

(Jan 2012)

Investors may think, when investing in Futures-Based Commodities exchange traded funds (ETFs), that they are gaining exposure to the underlying commodity. In this blog post, we discuss the ability of these ETFs to track the spot price of the underlying commodity.

In a previous blog post, we introduced the basics of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). In this post, we are going to discuss a specific kind of ETF: Commodities Futures Based ETFs.

There are a large number of Exchange Traded Funds...

NY Times on the Hosier decision

(Jan 2012)

The New York times has an article about the MAT and ASTA products sold by Citigroup that were the subject of a $54.1 million award in Denver last April. SLCG provided expert testimony and analysis for the claimants in this case, including assessing the MAT/ASTA products at issue, and we are excited that the Times has drawn attention to these highly risky investments.

The MAT and ASTA products were hedge funds that implemented a leveraged municipal bond arbitrage strategy. Essentially,...

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