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

Displaying 10 out of 437 results for "Mutual Fund".

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 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....

Regulation D Offerings Summary Statistics

(Aug 2022)

By Craig McCann, Chuan Qin and Mike Yan.

I. Introduction

Securities issuers can either register their securities with the Securities and Exchange Commission, making extensive information about their business and the offering publicly available, or they can sell unregistered securities making almost no information available to regulators. Issuers of unregistered securities file Form D reports with the SEC on which the issuers provide cursory information and claim an exemption from...

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...

Investors "Strangled" by LJM Preservation and Growth Fund (LJMIX)

(Feb 2018)

The stock market began the month of February on a roller-coaster. During the 6 trading days from Friday, February 2nd to Friday, February 9th, the Dow Jones Industrials had intraday swings of at least 330 points each day. On four of those six days the Dow incurred 1,000 point swings.

Amidst the dramatic market swings two weeks ago, the LJM Preservation and Growth Fund stands out. The Fund plummeted over 80% (from a price of $10.34 to $1.94) in two days. See Figure 1.

Figure 1. LJM Preservation...

UBS and Santander's Role in Underwriting Employee Retirement System Bonds

(May 2017)

We've written extensively about the UBS Puerto Rico Closed End Funds. These funds were concentrated in the riskiest subset of Puerto Rico municipal bonds - uninsured bonds with little or no market outside of the proprietary UBS funds. Our prior posts on Puerto Rico can be found on our website.

In this post we revisit the Employee Retirement System's 2008 ERS Series B offering to highlight Santander's role in this ill-fated deal. The Series B bonds were the second of three ERS offerings. The...

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