Pump-and-dump schemes have taken to the internet. Fintech firm HedgeChatter has come up with a way to combat stock price manipulation on social media and message boards. The firm has launched a filter that screens chat messages to uncover duplicate posts placed there by algorithms. "Twenty years ago it was boiler rooms. Today it's a $50 piece of software which creates thousands of online accounts to send pump messages luring educated investors into substantial losses. The number of stocks now being systematically manipulated by social influence and internet chat messages is increasing," said James Ross, CEO of HedgeChatter.
CircleBlack Passes $1 Billion Benchmark
Just one year after it launched the beta version of its wealth management platform, CircleBlack announced Thursday that it surpassed $1 billion in assets from 100 advisors and 7,000 accounts. “[The benchmark] is a validation of our vision of seamless communication between advisor and client,” said John Michel, the CEO of CircleBlack. Michel said CircleBlack’s targeting technology helps advisors "personalize" the content for clients, an approach that he said led to a deal with “one of the largest, multi-national clearing firms,” which helped it get to the $1 billion hurdle.
Advisors take note: California, Texas and New York are the largest states economically, based on their contribution to the country's $16 trillion gross domestic product, although three-fourths of U.S. metropolitan areas grew their inflation-adjusted contributions in 2014. HowMuch.net has made a map out of the country's GDP, sorted by largest cities. The greater New York metro area (which includes Newark and Jersey City) account for $1.56 trillion, or 10 percent of the the total, up almost 2.5 percent from 2013. The Greater Los Angeles area was second with $866 billion, followed by the Houston metro area with $525 billion.
Authorities Seize Portion of Lil Wayne's Art Collection
Police raided the Miami home of rapper Lil Wayne (real name Dwayne Carter) on Monday and seized a portion of his $30 million art collection in order to settle an unpaid $2 million judgment levied against him, according to Art Net News. The cops were accompanied by an art evaluator who helped them determine which items would add up to the judgement amount. No stranger to the legal system, Carter lost a civil suit brought in September by Signature Group over a lease for a private jet that went unpaid. Because he failed to settle the judgment in a timely manner, Signature Group obtained a court order on Oct. 30th that allowed authorities to forcefully enter Carter’s home and confiscate assets of equivalent value. He was reportedly not at home at the time.
