Registered Rep. Readers Are Awash in Numbers:
Government statistics, agency reports, news releases, interest rates, and stock quotes.
And so, we’ve selected a few fascinating statistics here that illuminate the markets, the world of financial services and big business. Introducing the Rep.Index. We hope you agree that it entertains as much as it educates.
1. Overall percent increase, from 2000 to 2007, in the number of investor contacts received by the SEC: 71 percent.
2. Number of complaints received by the SEC in 2006: 20,663
3. Rank of “advance fee fraud” among complaint categories: one
4. Number of one-letter NYSE ticker symbols currently unassigned: 10
5. The first one-letter NYSE stock ticker symbol issued: T (to AT&T in 1885)
6. Most recent one-letter NYSE stock ticker symbol issued: M (in 2007 to Federated Department Stores, which plans to change its name to Macy’s Inc.)
7. Mean annual wage of personal financial advisors in 2006: $82,970
8. Five top paying states for personal financial advisors, from highest to lowest: New York, Hawaii, New Mexico, Maine, Michigan
9. Value of dollar to euro in July 2002: one to one
10. Value of dollar to euro in April 2007: -35 percent
11. Rank of Sweden among nations in total taxes as a percent of GDP: first
12. Rank of United States: 28
13. Closing price of gold, per ounce, Dec. 31, 1999: $288.80
14. Closing price of gold, per ounce, Dec. 31, 2006: $636.30
15. Number of nations in which gold is circulated as money: zero
16. Estimated amount of gold “above ground” in the world: 120,000 to 140,000 tons
17. Number of grams and value of gold per person in the world, if distributed equally to world’s population: 23 grams per person, about $250 to $350 each
18. Rank of Google among most desirable employers 2007 undergraduates want to join: First
19. Rank of Peace Corp: Fifth
20. Portion of U.S. banking assets in 1996 that were controlled by the 10 largest U.S. banks: 25 percent.
21. Portion in 2006: 50 percent
22. Aggregate annual salary for CEOs Richard Kinder (KMI), Steve Jobs (Apple), Eric Schmidt (Google), James Rodgers (Duke Energy), Richard Fairbank (Capital One Financial) and Terry Semel (Yahoo): $6.00
23. Number of the past six years in which fine-art prices have outperformed the S&P 500: 5
24. Percentage of Americans who think that President Bush has "a lot" of control over the price of gasoline: 63 percent
25. Number of oil refineries built in the U.S. since 1976: Zero
Editor’s Note: Would you like to see more of this index? Drop an email to Managing Editor Kristen French, [email protected]
Sources:
1–3, SEC; 4-6, David Michayluk, The Rise and Fall of Single-Letter Ticker Symbols; 7-8, Bureau of Labor Statistics; 9-12, Crossingwallstreet.com; 13-17, galmarley.com; 18-19, BusinessWeek; 20-21, Comptroller of the Currency; 22, BusinessWeek; 23-24, Harper’s; 25, MSN.
