MetaFilter posts tagged with sec

Transparency Like You've Never Seen Before

up in the old hotel — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:57:59 -0800

You like documents? We got documents:

Congrats, you're a millionaire! April Fools! That'll be $819.99

waraw — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 09:56:37 -0800

Who are the Fools here? "Many customers of Zecco Trading logged into their brokerage account yesterday to be greeted with a slightly higher buying power than before… on the order of 6 to 13 million dollars!" So what'd these customers do? They bought stocks. Oops. SEC may be getting involved. The Consumerist: "When Zecco realized what was happening, they responded by panic-selling the purchased stocks at a loss and charging the balance to customers, along with a $19.99 broker-assisted trading fee. One poor schmo bought $1 million worth of shares that were later sold for less than the purchase price."

Cramer vs. Cramer

ryoshu — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:54:14 -0800

How to manipulate the market. (SLYT)

He hates to lose

up in the old hotel — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:40:00 -0800

Dallas Mavericks owner, celebrity dancer, Dairy Queen manager, and bloviating billionaire Mark Cuban has been accused of insider trading. In its complaint, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Cuban of selling his entire stake in Momma.com (since renamed) to avoid a $750,000 loss in 2004. But not even the government has a gag big enough to cover Cuban's mouth. On his blog, Cuban says the SEC is picking on him and presented an excerpt of a deposition of Mamma.com's CEO. And Cuban would like you to believe that he's being politically persecuted for his support of the 9/11 conspiracy film, "Loose Change." Cuban's Magnolia Pictures, which redacted Redacted, was said to be interested in a distribution deal.

The uptick rule

anotherpanacea — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 12:04:45 -0800

Rule 10a-1, otherwise known as the uptick rule, provided that, subject to certain exceptions, a listed security could only be sold short at or above the last sale price. The uptick rule was introduced in 1934 when the public blamed bear traders for the 1929 crash, and was eliminated in July of 2007 after a temporary pilot program. The SEC is now considering reinstating the rule, an effort buoyed by rumours that downtick short-selling may have facilitated an alleged 'bear raid' on Bear Stearns.

RTC II

uaudio — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:04:56 -0800

Banning short selling? Firing Chris Cox? Treasury Secretary Paulson has reportedly floated the idea of an 80s-style "Resolution Trust Corporation." Maybe we're finally turning the corner...or at least stopping the hemorrhaging.

Pork Flies (Sort Of)

Skeptic — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 10:50:14 -0800

So You Think The V-22 Is Ridiculous? [previously] Let me present you its dumb brother, the DuPont Aerospace DP-2. (No relation to the chemical conglomerate). Although successively panned in reviews by the US Navy in 1986, and DARPA in 1990, and shifted to the Office of Naval Research when DARPA uncharacteristically refused in 1997 to spend its allocated funds, the DP-2's protracted development has kept receiving Congressional earmarks for over twenty years, supported by Representatives Duncan Hunter (R.-Calif.) and Dana Rohrabacher (R.-Calif.), as well as former Representative Christopher Cox (you guessed it...R.-Calif.), nowadays Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission. Hunter, in particular, has steadfastedly defended the contraption, despite some slight design flaws, like that of incinerating soldiers. His support, however, may have less to do with the alleged ability of the concept than with the equally steadfast campaign funding he has received from DuPont. This month, however, the efforts of DuPont, Hunter, Cox and Rohrabacher have finally been rewarded with a first successful (tethered) hover. It may however be too late.

Traders will do anything for money. Film at 11.

quite unimportant — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 11:39:56 -0800

"The great thing about the market is that it has nothing to do with the actual stocks." Jim Cramer--probably most famous for his CNBC show "Mad Money"--comes clean in a TheStreet.com interview about the tactics he used while managing his hedge fund and how he, you know, might influence Apple's stock if he were in the game today. Feathers get ruffled.

Symposium on Director Liability

monju_bosatsu — Wed, 31 May 2006 10:51:47 -0800

Forum: The Pros and Cons of Director Liability. [more inside]

New SEC Executive Compensation Proposal

monju_bosatsu — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 11:29:13 -0800

The SEC has proposed new rules [pdf] to drastically increase requirements on executive compensation disclosure. You can read a summary of the proposal in the SEC's press release, as well as statements from Chairman Cox and Commissioner Atkin. [more inside]

Donaldson Takes a Dive

nj_subgenius — Sun, 26 Jun 2005 16:23:48 -0800

Bill Donaldson, chair of the SEC, is out effective June 30, presumably to go back to the private sector. Taking his place, if approved, is Christopher Cox. Many believe Donaldson restored investor confidence since the equity market implosion. What's the upside of a Chris Cox tenure and for whom ?

Nader takes on the SEC, will a campaign be next?

StormBear — Tue, 04 Mar 2003 20:17:23 -0800

Nader takes on the SEC, will a campaign be next? Bit by bit, Ralph Nader does what he does best, annoying those who abuse power. This last year, he has kept with advocacy that is in parallel with smart campaign strategy and the creation of the SEC watchdog group is an example of that. The Greens are still debating him in the forums, wondering if he is still their guy. Maybe they should be asking if he's OUR guy?

spotmeter — Wed, 18 Sep 2002 15:46:13 -0800

Is this a good idea? The SEC names an ex-Andersen partner to a top position regulating auditors. Why not have oil executives pick our energy policy while we're at it?

found missing — Wed, 31 Jul 2002 20:44:16 -0800

You've got jail? The SEC is no longer alone in investigating accounting irregularities at AOL Time Warner. Tonight the "world's leading media and entertainment company" confirmed that the U.S. Justice Dept. has opened its own probe. This, one day after President Bush signed the so-called Corporate and Auditing Accountability, Responsibility, and Transparency Act (pdf of HR 3763) (summary). Tonight, however, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, including Senators Patrick Leahy, D-Vt and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa are criticizing the President for trying to weaken the corporate fraud bill before the ink is even dry.

owillis — Sun, 28 Jul 2002 16:19:21 -0800

Clinton Fires Back at Republican Accusations "There was corporate malfeasance both before he took office and after. The difference is I actually tried to do something about it and their party stopped it. And one of the people who stopped our attempt to stop Enron accounting was made chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission." He also talks about the Middle East and the related "Blame Clinton" movement. I can hear the teeth gnashing already.

electro — Sun, 14 Jul 2002 09:42:12 -0800

This LA Times article goes into some of the details of the Bush/Harken SEC investigation. While it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, it's largely exculpatory.

justlooking — Wed, 17 Apr 2002 16:33:48 -0800

The wall seperating analysts and traders appears to have completely broken down in Merril Lynch. Yesterday, NYT reported that SEC is joining the investigation. The accounting scandal in QWest is now one of many in the telecommunication world. There is also the well documented travails of Anderson Consulting.... This year there has been a crop of accounting scandals. Does the financial world needs stricter regulatory mechanism or is it simply a matter of lax supervision? (more inside)

FreezBoy — Wed, 30 Jan 2002 05:11:40 -0800

Invest now! The SEC has created a fake website to try and educate the naive. I can't decide if this is a good idea, or if someone has too much time on their hands and is wasting my tax dollars.

palegirl — Mon, 26 Feb 2001 13:42:42 -0800

from this weeks nyt mag: a fantastic article by the always-excellent michael lewis: Jonathan Lebed: Stock Manipulator, S.E.C. Nemesis -- and 15