Posts belonging to Category Commodities and Futures



Investor Alert – Forex Trading Can Be Lethal

 

SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar called for the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy to issue an investor alert warning retail investors about the risks of trading off-exchange foreign currency contracts. This comes in the wake of the SEC’s recent approval of a temporary rule allowing the sale of retail forex contracts to unsophisticated investors […]

Forex Trading is Unsuitable for Most Retail Investors

 

A lot of retail investors are getting involved with Forex trading, according to Stephen L. Bernard’s Wall Street Journal article entitled “Is Currency Trading Worth the Risk?” It is only worth the risk if you can afford to lose every penny you put into it, and quickly. Regulators are seeking to warn retail investors of […]

Investment Regulators Often Fail to Collect Monetary Sanctions

 

“That’s the easiest $250,000 you’ll never see,” quipped the judge who had just granted a motion for summary judgment in a recent case. Collectibility of judgments is something that private attorneys usually consider in deciding whether to expend resources to pursue a case. The attorneys who work for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and […]

Massachusetts Claims it was Overcharged for Forex Trades

 

Massachusetts may join California, Virginia and Florida in suing Bank of New York Mellon Corp. for allegedly overcharging the state’s pensioners for foreign exchange trades, according to Carrick Mollenkamp’s Wall Street Journal article entitled “New Front Opens in Massachusetts for Forex Dispute.” Federal agencies are reportedly investigating.

Fluctuating Margin Requirements Impact the Volatility of Commodities

 

Carolyn Cui’s Wall Street Journal article entitled “Tripped Up by the Margin” makes the point that increasing margin requirements, a step sometimes taken by exchanges to reduce market volatility, can actually increase downward volatility as a result of ensuing forced liquidations.

The Performance of Commodities Exchange Traded Funds Can Vary Significantly

 

In his Wall Street Journal article “All ‘Commodities’ Aren’t Equal,” Liam Pleven makes the simple point that the performance of broad-based commodities index exchange traded funds may vary significantly because of varying portfolio composition. The fungibility of commodities, or inaccurate advertising, may have led some investors to believe that commodity funds are fungible. They aren’t. […]

The Forex Mess Gets Nasty

 

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. admits it did not act in its clients’ best interest in pricing foreign currency trades but says its clients are to blame because they knew or should have known what was going on, according to a Wall Street Journal article by Carrick Mollencamp and Tom McGinty entitled “Inside a […]

Goldman’s Legal Woes Keep Growing

 

Goldman Sachs disclosed that it has been notified that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s staff will recommend that the agency bring “aiding and abetting, civil fraud and supervision-related charges” against its division, Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, according to a Wall Street Journal article by Liz Moyer entitled “Goldman Discloses CFTC Probe.” The charges reportedly […]

Silver Investments Plummet

 

Silver futures plummeted to their biggest decline since March 1983 after Comex’s owner, CME Group Ltd., raised margin requirements for new speculative positions by 84 percent in less than two weeks, according to according to an InvestmentNews article entitled “Silver investors holding ‘a falling knife.’” Gold also fell.

The New Congress Appears Determined to Undermine the Integrity of the U.S. Capital Markets

 

The U.S. government is trying to recruit new talent with “Wall Street experience and retool antiquated surveillance systems,” according to Rachelle Younglai of Reuters. In the past the SEC and other government regulators have been unable to attract the top talent because they could not match the high salaries of top Wall Street firms. The […]