An irreverent Wall Street Blog
by Bill Singer
by Bill Singer
BrokeAndBroker.com by Bill Singer WEEKLY REVIEW
November 22, 2014
Yeah, I know . . . I'm getting older and grouchier and if I were nominated for Curmudgeon of the Year, I would probably complain about that accolade and then refuse to attend the award ceremony. In keeping with that spirit, I'm no fan of the proliferation of forums, roundtables, conferences, break-out sessions, and all sorts of get-togethers at which government and private sector types interact. Why, you might ask? (And if you didn't ask, humor me, ask). Because it's just a colossal waste of time and resources. We all know how this crap works. You recycle the same old folks with the same old connections round and round and round at these confabs. At one year's meeting, they speak out for the private sector. At the next year's, they are high-minded public servants attending for the government. At the following year's session, they often criticize the very positions that they had earlier espoused.
In the end, we get the White Paper. That makes its way to Congress and to various agencies. It gets sliced. It gets diced. It gets eviscerated. It may or may not get proposed as some legislation, but if it does, it will likely die in committee. And in the rare event that something - anything - ever emerges from this inefficient dynamic, it often proves an indecipherable and unworkable bit of legislation that takes on an after-life as an equally corrosive rule on some agency's books.
In that uplifting spirit, I see that there was a 2014 Securities and Exchange Commission Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation. Mind you, this is the 33rd such iteration of that forum. READ
Few battles on Wall Street become more pitched than those involving disputes over a registered person's commissions, fees, or bonuses. Typically, the stockbroker or trader feels short-changed. The numbers don't add up. You didn't give me credit for that deal. You promised to pay me more. In today's BrokeAndBroker.com Blog, we consider claims about unpaid commissions and the calculation of deferred compensation.
First: Study.
Second: Study more.
Third: Take the test.
Fourth: Pass the test.
Four simple steps you need to follow in order to pass Wall Street's various registration examinations. But what would life be without those characters who prefer a short-cut?
We got this registered person who is acting as the CFO of his son's company and is also promoting an anti-wrinkle cream. How do those two roles combine into a FINRA regulatory matter? For one thing, there are aspects of an undisclosed private securities transaction; and, for another thing, it seems that we may have an undisclosed outside business activity.
As today's installment of the BrokeAndBroker.com Blog demonstrates, the battle between FINRA and those seeking to reform the industry's arbitration protocols continues. In the latest piece of litigation, we have a powerful investors' advocacy organization taking on both a self-regulatory organization and its federal overseer.