Posts belonging to Category Morgan Stanley
Posted by Page PerryonJuly 27, 2011
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has issued an investor alert warning against chasing yield with structured products, junk bonds and floating-rate bank-loan funds. The alert was prompted by “significant recent inflows” into high-yield products. Investors may find enhanced yields attractive in the current market environment of low yields on conventional fixed-income investments and higher […]
Categories: Alternative Investments, Ameriprise, Bonds, Brokerage Firms, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Early Retirement Scams, Elder Abuses, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Options, Promissory Notes, Regulatory Developments, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Structured Notes, UBS
Posted by Page PerryonJuly 22, 2011
The Georgia Securities Commissioner has launched an investigation into sales of structured products called reverse convertible notes made by broker-dealer firms to Georgia residents. The brokerage firms under investigation include UBS AG, Morgan Stanley and Ameriprise Financial. The investigations were begun after the Commissioner received complaints from investors who lost money in these purportedly safe […]
Categories: Ameriprise, Brokerage Firms, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Derivatives, Early Retirement Scams, Elder Abuses, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, Morgan Stanley, Options, Regulatory Developments, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Structured Notes, UBS
Posted by Page PerryonJuly 13, 2011
Large Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and others, are cutting compensation for big producers, not just laying off lower producers and back-office employees, and are requiring even the biggest producers to bring in more business for the same amount of compensation, according to a CNBC article entitled “Wall Street Slashing Pay?Even for […]
Categories: Brokerage Firms, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Employment Issues, Goldman Sachs, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Market Developments, Morgan Stanley, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools
Posted by Page PerryonJuly 1, 2011
SEC Enforcement Chief Robert Khuzami recently stated that the SEC’s decision not to charge top executives of Wall Street banks with wrongdoing in cases involving structured products was appropriate, according to Suzanne Barlyn’s Wall Street Journal article entitled “SEC: Structured-Product Cases Haven’t Reached Top Bank Officers.” According to Mr. Khuzami, top executives were not involved […]
Categories: Asset Backed Securities, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Brokerage Firms, CDOs, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Credit Default Swaps, Derivatives, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Investigations, Investment Advisers, J. P. Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Keegan, Morgan Stanley, Mortgage Backed Securities, Mortgage Securities & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems, Regulatory Developments, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Structured Notes, UBS, Wachovia
Posted by Page PerryonJune 30, 2011
The jobs crisis is starting to hit Wall Street banks and brokerage firms, according to a series of Wall Street Journal articles (“Wall Street Wielding the Ax,” by Aaron Lucchetti and Liz Rappaport; “Credit Suisse Set to Ax 600 Jobs,” by Katharina Bart; and “Here’s Why Wall Street Is Cutting Jobs”). A regulatory crackdown on […]
Categories: Barclays, Brokerage Firms, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Credit Suisse, Employment Issues, Goldman Sachs, Market Developments, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, UBS
Posted by Page PerryonJune 20, 2011
Investors in today’s markets, particularly seniors, are caught between extremely low interest rates and the risk of pursuing higher returns they want or need. Brokerage firms are capitalizing on that dilemma by selling structured products as a way to earn above-market returns purportedly without market risk. But as Robert Powel, editor of MarketWatch’s Retirement Weekly, […]
Categories: Bank of America, Brokerage Firms, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Credit Suisse, Derivatives, Deutsche Bank, Elder Abuses, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, J. P. Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Regulatory Developments, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Structured Notes, UBS, Wachovia
Posted by Page PerryonJune 16, 2011
Wall Street’s pay practices place financial advisors’ personal interests in direct conflict with the interest of their clients. This is one of many reasons that Wall Street firms oppose the adoption of a fiduciary standard that would require financial advisors to put their clients interest first.
Categories: Brokerage Firms, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Employment Issues, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, Investor Rights, Morgan Stanley, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools
Posted by Page PerryonJune 15, 2011
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney said that it may terminate more brokers than had been previously announced, as its cost slashing efforts continue, according to Andrew Osterland’s InvestmentNews article entitled “Reps face belt-tightening at MSSB.” The reasons given for the reduction in force are that the firm is less than half as profitable as expected, and […]
Categories: Brokerage Firms, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Employment Issues, Investment Advisers, Morgan Stanley, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation
Posted by Page PerryonJune 13, 2011
Retail investors in structured products that were sold as safe and secure investments have lost at least $113 billion, according to a report by the nonpartisan policy center Demos and The Nation Institute. “In my three decades of Wall Street experience, I have not seen any other product as absurdly destructive as retail investments linked […]
Categories: Bank of America, Brokerage Firms, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Derivatives, Elder Abuses, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Options, Regulatory Developments, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Structured Notes, UBS
Posted by Page PerryonJune 3, 2011
Simply stated, senior investors (in fact, all investors) should be very leery of high-risk structured products. Author John Wasik, in conjunction with Demos and The Nation Institute, has published a white paper entitled “How Safe Are Your Savings? How Complex Derivative Products Imperil Seniors’ Retirement Security.” The paper’s focus is on structured products and how […]
Categories: Asset Backed Securities, Bank of America, Barclays, Brokerage Firms, CDOs, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Credit Default Swaps, Derivatives, Early Retirement Scams, Elder Abuses, Goldman Sachs, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, J. P. Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Keegan, Morgan Stanley, Mortgage Backed Securities, Mortgage Securities & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems, Options, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Structured Notes, UBS
