Blog

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

Displaying 11-20 out of 276 results for "Puerto Ricof=Informational Post".

Beneficient's Trading is Bad Omen for GWG Bondholder Recoveries

(Jun 2023)

By Craig McCann and Regina Meng.

We have found so many red flags in GWG Holdings' public filings years before its bankruptcy filing in 2022 that no unconflicted broker would have recommended GWG's L Bonds and no fully informed investor would have bought them. Nonetheless, $1.3 billion face value of L Bonds remained outstanding at the time of the bankruptcy. These bonds were sold by third tier brokerage firms in pursuit of undisclosed commissions as high as 8%.

We will tell a more...

Blackstone is Watching Us and Just Admitted a Major Misrepresentation

(May 2023)

By Craig McCann and Regina Meng

You can download a pdf of this article to print or email here.

BREIT this week eliminated a prominent marketing graphic touting inflated after-tax yields and tax-equivalent yields after we pointed out that it was false and misleading.

In December 2022 we predicted a run on BREIT and then in April 2023 we identified 7 major areas in which we believe Blackstone and BREIT have been misleading investors.

Blackstone's Choice: Let BREIT Crash or...

Blackstone Fiddles as BREIT Burns

(Apr 2023)

By Craig McCann and Regina Meng.

You can download a pdf of this article to print or email here.

Introduction

In December, we argued that Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust ("BREIT") smoothed and inflated its reported returns for years, leading to large investor inflows. [1] We predicted that a run on the bank had started because of Blackstone's prior conduct, leaving it with two very bad options. BREIT could honor redemption requests at posted NAVs and see its NAV cut in half as the NAV...

HJ Sims Reg D Offerings: Heads, HJ Sims Wins - Tails, Their Investors Lose - UPDATED December 14, 2022 with Footnote 2 and Footnote 3

(Dec 2022)

By Craig McCann, Susan Song, Chuan Qin, and Mike Yan.

Introduction

We have been researching Reg D offerings. You can read our previous posts "Reg D Offerings Summary Statistics" here and "$8 Trillion of Broker-Sold Reg D Offerings" here. You can download and print or email this post by clicking here.

In our research, we have come across thousands of interesting Reg D Offerings. HJ Sims Reg D Offerings provide great examples of potential Reg D mischief.

The Reg D exemption from...

First National Realty Partners Reg D Offerings: Muppets Do Commercial Real Estate

(Dec 2022)

By Craig McCann, Susan Song, Chuan Qin, and Mike Yan.

You can read our previous posts Reg D offerings:

1) "Reg D Offerings Summary Statistics" here,
2) "$8 Trillion of Broker-Sold Reg D Offerings" here,
3) "HJ Sims Reg D Offerings: Heads Sims Wins, Tails their Investors Lose" here, and
4) "Inactive and Delinquent Reg D Issuers" here.

You can download and print or email this post by clicking here.

Introduction

In a recent note, we explained how HJ Sims executives formed 91 separate...

Inactive and Delinquent Reg D Issuers

(Nov 2022)

By Craig McCann[1], Chuan Qin[2], and Mike Yan[3].

We have been researching Reg D offerings. You can read our previous posts "Reg D Offerings Summary Statistics" here, "$8 Trillion of Broker-Sold Reg D Offerings" here and "HJ Sims Reg D Offerings: Heads Sims Wins, Tails their Investors Lose" here. You can download and print or email this post by clicking here.

I. Introduction

Regulation D issuers are not required to provide disclosures that are mandatory in registered offerings. Not only...

$8 Trillion of Broker-Sold Reg D Offerings

(Nov 2022)

By Craig McCann[1], Mike Yan[2] and Chuan Qin[3].

We previously published Reg D Offerings Summary Statistics describing the aggregate issuance totaling over $20 trillion between 2009 and July 2022. You can read that post here.

In this post we provide summary statistics for Reg D offerings sold by broker dealers. You can get a pdf copy of this post to print or email by clicking here. Next week, we will be posting information on the extremely high failure rates for Reg D offerings.

I....

UBS's Yield Enhancement Strategy ("YES") Returns - and then the Losses - Were Caused by Equity Market Exposure

(Oct 2019)

UBS marketed YES as market-neutral based on a combination of four options is sometimes referred to as an "Iron Condor". UBS accounts subjected to YES treatment suffered losses of 12% to 14% in December 2018 when the S&P 500 dropped 9.2% because the overlay was more than 100%.

In this paper the authors we explain the option basics necessary to understand the YES strategy and illustrate how UBS actually implemented the strategy with predictably disastrous results. They also present how UBS...

YES Strategies: Know to say no

(May 2019)

In recent years, low yields in the bond market and low volatility in the equity markets have combined to give brokerage firms the excuse to develop and sell "Yield Enhancement Strategies (YES)" to retail investors. These strategies almost always consist of selling options on the S&P 500. The sale of an option garners a premium but places the seller (the retail investor) in a short option position. Being short on a call or put option is a risky place to be. In the best-case scenario, the...

Material Misrepresentations in XIV's Prospectus Led to $700 Million in Losses

(Mar 2018)

Executive Summary

Credit Suisse's XIV Exchange Traded Note (ETN) linked to the inverse of short-term VIX futures prices lost 97% of its value or approximately $2 billion in a single day on February 5, 2018. Credit Suisse announced the following morning that it would redeem all outstanding XIV shares at the Closing Indicative Value on February 15, 2018.¹

Figure 1 reports the daily closing price for XIV from its inception in November 2010 to its demise in February 2018. The run-up in 2017...

276 Results

<
1
2
3
4
...
28
>