Blog

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

Displaying 10 out of 234 results for "Principal Protected Notes".

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 III: SVB, Really?

(Mar 2024)

By Craig McCann and Mike Yan

On Monday, we documented that $122 billion in autocallable structured products have been sold in the past 4 years, mostly issued by UBS, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. You can read our first note on autocallables here.

Yesterday, we illustrated features of autocallables with reference to the five notes linked to the stock price of Lucid issued by Credit Suisse and Citigroup. You can read our second note here.

Today, we point...

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...

Autocallables 2024 Part I

(Mar 2024)

By Craig McCann and Mike Yan

Introduction We have published extensively on structured products over the past 20 years. We published two papers dealing specifically with autocallable structured products - one in 2011 and one in 2015.[1] Since 2015, while we were focused on other research projects, the issuance of autocallable structured products has exploded, issuers have become more creative, the variety of products has proliferated and the potential for investor harm has increased...

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...

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...

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...

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...

234 Results

1
2
3
...
24
>