Blog

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

Displaying 10 out of 376 results for "Muni Markup Week".

Starwood REIT Misleads, Like BREIT only Worse!

(Apr 2024)

By Craig McCann and Regina Meng

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

In late 2022 we analyzed BREIT and concluded that BREIT had been systematically inflating its NAV, smoothing its returns and misleading investors. The intervening 18 months have confirmed our opinions.

We focused on BREIT because it was a juggernaut and a poster child for the nontraded REIT industry trying to rebuild after its prior "lifecycle" flimflam was no longer tenable in the face of...

Autocallables Part IV: Issuers' Day-1 Value Mischief

(Mar 2024)

By Craig McCann and Mike Yan

Earlier this week we posted about the $122 billion in autocallable structured products sold in the past 4 years, mostly issued by UBS, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. You can read that post here.

We illustrated features of autocallables with reference to the five notes linked to the stock price of Lucid issued by Credit Suisse and Citigroup in a post available here and pointed out a particularly poorly timed issuance by Citigroup linked...

Autocallables 2024 Part II: Lucid-linked Notes

(Mar 2024)

By Craig McCann and Mike Yan

Yesterday, we described the rapid growth in Autocallable structured products; $122 billion have been sold in the past 4 years. You can read our first post on autocallables here.

In this, our second, post, we illustrate features of autocallables with reference to the five notes linked to the stock price of Lucid.

Our third post, available here, highlights a Silicon Valley Bank linked autocallable sold by Citigroup after the close on March 9, 2023 right...

Another Example of Apparent Marking-the-Close

(Mar 2024)

By Craig McCann and Mike Yan

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

Introduction

We recently posted research into stock issuances solely underwritten by Aegis Capital. We concluded that investors, including many Aegis' retail customers, suffered $3.0 billion to $5 billion in losses in recent years as a result of Aegis' conduct. You can view that post here.

We also concluded that in at least three instances either Aegis marked the close or looked the...

Aegis Capital is Farm-to-Table Securities Fraud Purveyor, Harming Investors at Least $5 Billion!

(Mar 2024)

By Craig McCann and Mike Yan

You can download a PDF copy of this post to print or email here.

You can download an Excel file containing some of our analysis of Aegis' sole underwritten offerings here.

Introduction

Aegis Capital is one of the worst few retail brokerage firms based on complaints and investors should avoid it at all costs. You can see our recent post on bad brokerage firms here 2024 Brokerage Firm Risk Rankings

In addition to its retail brokerage business,...

2024 Brokerage Firm Risk Rankings

(Feb 2024)

By Craig McCann, Chuan Qin and Mike Yan

We previously published two papers ranking brokerage firms based on the complaint history associated with their current brokers and the complaints associated with brokers who they employed at the time of the conduct being complained about, wherever those brokers are currently employed.

We recently updated our analysis of complaints against brokerage firms and found that our earlier results were extremely useful for identifying brokerage firms likely...

Howard Capital Management Funds Charge High Fees to Misuse Leveraged ETFs

(Jan 2024)

By Craig McCann and Susan Song

You can download a copy of this note to print or email here.

Introduction

Howard Capital Management ("HCM") is a SEC-registered RIA based in Roswell, GA.[1] In addition to advising individual accounts, it manages mutual funds and ETFs. It claims to use proprietary technical analysis, HCM-BuyLine(R), to market-time the funds' asset allocations.

Without any risk disclosure, HCM's mutual funds buy and hold leveraged ETFs for much longer periods than is...

Walton Land Fund 3, LP: Laundering Fees and Fleecing Investors

(Jan 2024)

By Craig McCann and Regina Meng

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

Introduction

We recently published an extensive study of the unregistered Reg D securities markets:

"Regulation D Offerings: Issuers, Investors and Intermediaries", Craig McCann, Chuan Qin and Mike Yan, 2023 working paper, available at www.slcg.com/files/research-papers/Reg_D_Offering.pdf.

It is hard to assess investor returns in the Reg D marketplace because there are no publicly available...

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...

376 Results

1
2
3
...
38
>