The SEC has released this investor bulletin featuring its top five tips for investors in selecting a financial professional. Besides providing advice, the bulletin contains a checklist of questions. The five tips (in summary) are the following: Do your homework and ask questions. Find out whether the products and services available are right for you. Understand how you'll pay for services and products, and how your financial professional gets paid as well. Ask about the financial professional's experience and credentials. Ask the financial professional if he or she has had a disciplinary

This list of “Section 13(f) securities” -- current as of September 15, 2012 -- is made available to the public pursuant to the Exchange Act, and may be relied on by institutional investment managers filing Form 13F reports for the calendar quarter ending September 30, 2012. Reporting requirements under 13(f) are discussed in the Trading Chapter of the Broker-Dealer Guide. View notice here (links externally to SEC website).

FINRA (along with NYSE Arca, NASDAQ, NASDAQ OMX BX, and BATS) announced that they have censured and fined Hold Brothers On-Line Investment Services, LLC (a New York-based self-clearing broker-dealer) $3.4 million for a number of violations including manipulative trading activities and failure to comply with anti-money laundering requirements. Hold Brothers primarily operates as a day-trading firm by facilitating direct market access (largely foreign, primarily Chinese) customers. It appears that a major part of the manipulation involved the firm attempting to trick the trading algorithms of

In a speech at the SIFMA Regional Conference, Gallagher says that the SEC must prioritize its rulemaking in light of the theoretical extent of required rulemaking. He is moderately explicit that the SEC cannot reasonably adopt all of the rules that Congress has charged it with adopting, and so the SEC must choose the ones on which to focus. In this regard, he points to the recent releases relating to conflict minerals as being well-intentioned, but essentially relating to matters that are outside of the SEC's expertise. He also states that he believes that even within the securities area

The OCC Division of Corporation Finance responded to a letter from Pentair, Inc. and Flow Control International Ltd. The principal concern addressed in the letter was whether one issuer would be deemed a "successor" to another for purposes of, among other things, eligibility to use Form S-3, compliance with the current public information requirements of Rule 144(c)(1) under the Securities Act and filing new registration statements under the Securities Act for ongoing offerings of securities. Cross-Reference(s): Exchange Act Rule 12g-3 and 12b-2; Securities Act Rule 144(c)(1) and 414. View