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

Displaying 11-20 out of 130 results for "Mutual Fund".

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - December 7th, 2012

(Dec 2012)

SEC Secures Trial Victory and Obtains Over $2.1 Million in Disgorgement and Penalties in Market Manipulation Case
December 6, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22561)
A final judgment was entered against brothers Mayer Amsel and David Amsel "following a bench trial in a market manipulation case involving the securities of a company known as East Delta Resources Corp." The final judgment orders the brothers to pay, jointly and severally, over $2.4 million in disgorgement, pre-judgment interest, and...

PowerShares to List Actively Managed Downside Hedged S&P ETF

(Dec 2012)

Late last week, Invesco PowerShares filed a form N-1A registration statement with the SEC to list an exchange traded fund (ETF) with exposure to the S&P 500 with downside exposure actively hedged through VIX futures contracts. The PowerShares S&P 500 Downside Hedged Portfolio (PHDG) seeks to "achieve positive total returns in rising or falling markets that are not directly correlated to broad equity or fixed income market returns" and has annual operating expenses of about 39 basis points....

Attractive Yields and Hidden Risks

(Dec 2012)

The Wall Street Journal had a great piece this weekend concerning the investments some investors are seeking out to find yield in this low interest rate environment. Investors are taking on more and more risk to realize the yield they once found commonplace and this article brings a few examples to the forefront.

The risk investors are taking include credit risk (high-yield/junk bonds), market risk (closed-end funds trading at a premium) or some combination of the two (structured products)....

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - November 30th, 2012

(Nov 2012)

SEC v. John H. Pamplin, Jr.
November 29, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22550)
According to the complaint (opens to PDF), former TurboChef Technologies, Inc. employee John H. Pamplin, Jr. traded with insider information regarding TurboChef's pending acquisition by The Middleby Corporation in 2008 which resulted in a $68,000 illicit profit. According to the SEC, Pamplin violated the Exchange Act. The SEC seeks "permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement, pre-judgment interest, and civil...

SEC Charges KCAP Financial with Overvaluing Assets

(Nov 2012)

The SEC alleges that KCAP Financial, a publicly traded business development company (BDC), did not accurately report the fair value of its corporate debt and collateralized loan obligation (CLO) assets during the financial crisis, thereby misleading investors. According to the press release, KCAP valued some of their assets at cost, not at fair market value, overstating the net asset value by over 25% during the peak of the financial crisis.

BDCs are similar to REITs in that they hold...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - November 23rd, 2012

(Nov 2012)

Brian Stoker Found Not Liable
November 21, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22541)
On July 31, 2012, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York found Brian H. Stoker, former Citigroup Global Markets Inc. employee, "not liable for violations of the Federal securities laws related to the issuance of a $1 billion collateralized debt obligation (CDO) called Class V Funding III." The SEC did not appeal the verdict, and "the time for appeal has expired." The SEC filed its...

Do Leveraged ETFs Contribute to Share Price Volatility?

(Nov 2012)

We've talked a lot about leveraged and inverse Exchange Traded Funds (LETFs)and the problems that can arise from their rebalancing. A recent paper from a group at York University asks two simple but interesting questions: does this rebalancing affect the volatility of the underlying assets? If so, can a sophisticated trader exploit that effect to achieve excess returns?

On the first question, the authors find two main results. First, the directional trades LETF providers and counterparties...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - November 16th, 2012

(Nov 2012)

BP to Pay $525 Million Penalty to Settle SEC Charges of Securities Fraud During Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
November 15, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22531)
According to the complaint (opens to PDF), BP p.l.c misled investors by understating the flow rate of oil that was escaping from its Deepwater Horizon oil rig in 2010. According to the SEC, while BP reported the flow rate was about 5,000 barrels of oil a day, it had "at least five different flow rate calculations, estimates, or data...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - November 11th, 2012

(Nov 2012)

SEC Charges Purported Credit Union and Its Principal with Offering Fraud
November 8, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22526)
The SEC filed a civil injunctive action against Stanley B. McDuffie and his entity, Jilapuhn, Inc (which has done business as Her Majesty's Credit Union) this week. According to the complaint (opens to PDF), from 2008 to 2012 McDuffie and HMCU enticed investors to purchase CDs "through the HMCU website and a branch office in the U.S. Virgin Islands," assuring investors that...

SEC Sues Commonwealth Advisors Over Collybus I CDO

(Nov 2012)

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a Complaint today against Commonwealth Advisors, Inc. and Walter A. Morales in connection with the Collybus I CDO offering in November 2007. See the SEC Complaint and the Collybus I CDO Offering Document.

The SEC alleges amongst other things that the Defendants used the Collybus I CDO offering to shift losses from its hedge funds by causing the CDO to purchase impaired RMBS from Commonwealth's hedge funds at values which did not reflect recent...

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