The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has been warning brokerages and investors of the dangers that leveraged ETFs pose all year. This past week, they announced a raising of the margin requirements for these products and I think this was a very smart move. By now, most investors are aware of the erosion involved when…
FINRA
The Top 10 Investor Traps According to the NASAA
For 90 years, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) has been committed to protecting and educating individual investors. The other day they put out a list of what they believe to be the Top 10 Investor Traps, and I thought they’d done a pretty good job of summarizing some of the major pitfalls that…
What Obama's "Brokers As Fiduciaries" Change Really Means
In Obama‘s new regulatory reform proposal, there is language concerning how brokers are looked at and treated versus investment advisors. From the Wall Street Journal: Currently, brokers are only required to offer investments that are “suitable,” which means they can’t put clients in inappropriate investments, such as a highly risky stock for an 80-year-old grandmother….
Alternate Realities: GOP or Dem Markets
Which of our two major political parties would be a better steward of our capital markets and financial system if left unchecked by the other party? I think either way, the result would be pretty scary. The Republicans never met a business they didn’t want to deregulate and the Democrats never met an underprivileged constituent…
Consolidate Your Brokerage Accounts in 2009: Your Friend, the ACAT
Consolidating your brokerage accounts isn’t the same thing as “putting all your eggs in one basket”. Rather, it’s about keeping a wide variety of different investments with only a few trustworthy and helpful people so you can keep track of what you’re doing. Putting all your eggs in one basket would be consolidating your whole…
